The third and final match of another busy day of action at Euro 2024 sees the powerhouse of France getting their competition underway with plenty of attention on them when they take on Austria in Group D in Dusseldorf.
France head to the tournament as one of the favourites to win the title while Austria were flagged up as potential dark horses with a squad which know each other well and have picked up some positive results off the back of that.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV1 channel in the UK with the build-up to the Monday finale beginning at 7.15pm ahead of an 8pm kick off.
Austria
Austria make the short trip to Germany off the back of just one loss in their last 16 matches but now is where that record will really come under scrutiny. It is fine winning matches when you are seeded to do it in a qualifying campaign or in friendlies but with the heat and intensity on in tournament play where there isn’t a huge amount of time to repair any damage that is done, that is when the real judgement comes. Austria start with their toughest game but this is a tough group.
I think there would be a lot more optimism about this Austrian side had they had their captain David Alaba available for this tournament but he is out and that does leave a bit of a hole. There are no shortage of goals in this Austria side, although quite how offensive minded they will be in this match remains to be seen, so if their defence can handle the fluidity of a couple of lively attacks then they will come out of this group and see how far they can progress from there.
France
France were the favourites of many people heading into the tournament even if it was England who were the market leaders with the bookmakers and they get their first chance to show why that is the case here. They cruised through qualifying, as you would have expected them to do, and have elite level players such as Kylian Mbappe who pretty much win matches on their own if they are allowed to do their thing. I don’t think many are expecting France to struggle in this group so this could be able finding out just how good they are.
France have seen a couple of the fancied runners in this tournament get off to emphatic starts in their campaigns and while that won’t necessarily be of interest to them because they will be focused on their own play and results, this is a chance to show those who will be watching them just what they have. There isn’t really a weakness to this French side which is why so many expect them to win the tournament. A dominant display will heighten those predictions.
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Team News
Austria will be without David Alaba whose injury has got allowed him to be in the squad as a playing member. Marko Arnautovic and Michael Gregoritsch look to battle it out with Ralf Rangnick expected to name just one of them up top.
France are so strong that they are expected to only name William Saliba on their bench. Aurelien Tchouameni is not expected to be fully fit until later in the competition so N’Golo Kante might get the central midfield berth.
Betting
There aren’t going to be many more opportunities in life to back Kylian Mbappe to score anytime at odds against now that he is off to Real Madrid to join up with that Galactico outfit but we do have that option available to us here. I would be surprised if he is 21/20 again in this competition until perhaps the real big games towards the end of the tournament but I’m not missing out on the livewire forward, especially when he is going to be on penalties.
Mbappe has a ridiculous scoring record for his country. Since the beginning of 2022 he has played in 26 internationals for France and he has 23 goals in that time and he found the back of the net in warm up for this tournament against Luxembourg. We know a lot of the play will go through Mbappe but we also know that the French can lay it on a plate for him as well. Mbappe will want to show Real Madrid what they are getting and with the extra attention on him I think he’ll deliver a goal here.
Tips
Back K.Mbappe to score anytime for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
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