The Euro 2024 action on Monday begins with the heavyweight round of 16 clash as the double header gets going when the former champions France go up against Belgium in a repeat of the 2018 World Cup semi-final.
These two sides head to Dusseldorf probably regretting not winning their group and avoiding each other at this stage as a powerful side is going to be going home much earlier than they would have anticipated.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV1 channel in the UK with the build-up beginning at 3.45pm ahead of the 5pm kick off in Dusseldorf.
France
This has been a surprisingly flat campaign for the French so far. They head into the knockout stages having only come second in their group which was the first surprise but also having yet to score a goal in open play. Only one French player has scored in the competition so far and that came from the penalty spot so there is a lot of improvement to come out of this France side, however history tells us that it is likely to arrive now that the business end of the event is here.
The positive for France is that their defence has stood up to the challenge so far. The only goal they have conceded was a twice taken penalty and there was plenty of doubt over that decision. That is something we have come to expect from the French and usually their clunky attack works its way into a tournament and it might be that facing a dangerous opponent brings out the best in them here. If it does they will be hard to beat.
Belgium
Without any disrespect to the other teams, the fact that Belgium couldn’t come out on top of a group which had Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia in it probably tells us all that we need to know about where they are as a nation right now. I guess you could say that they would just have wanted to get out of the group having failed to do that at the World Cup but a confident Belgium side with the talent that they have at their disposal should be walking to top spot in that section.
There was an element of bad fortune in their group stage, certainly in the opening match where their defeat to Slovakia was partly down to two very questionable VAR calls but their showing in the first half of their last game against Ukraine in particular was very ordinary. This Belgium defence has done nothing to convince throughout the campaign so far so if their attack doesn’t click you would have to think that they are going to be in big trouble here.
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Team News
Antoine Griezmann was a surprise exclusion for the draw with Poland last time out but he is expected to return to an attack which didn’t function nearly as well in his absence. Kylian Mbappe will continue to play with a mask on.
Belgium will be able to call on the services of Dodi Lukebakio who has served his suspension but whether he gets in from the start remains to be seen. Leandro Trossard would be most vulnerable if the winger does come back in.
Betting
If you look purely at the results of France then you would think they are really struggling but when you factor in that they had to do without Kylian Mbappe at short notice in their second match and have only conceded a twice taken penalty I don’t think things are as bad as they look. Where we can take encouragement is the quality of chances they have created and the ease with which they have got into the box of the opposition so far in this tournament.
They are not going to keep on missing those chances and there is no reason to think they won’t get at a vulnerable Belgian defence. Belgium have looked average and while their figures aren’t terrible in terms of chances, they have faced three decidedly weaker teams than the one they come up against here. If we assume that William Saliba takes care of Romelu Lukaku then I expect France to have too much class for Belgium whether they impress or grind out another win.
Tips
Back France to beat Belgium for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with William Hill
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