France and the Netherlands should treat us to a Friday night spectacular as the two European powerhouses battle it out for a place at the top of Group D.
The two sides picked up one-goal victories over Austria and Poland in their openers, making the highly-anticipated match itself a hard one to predict.
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Netherlands vs France
Friday, June 21, 8pm
Red Bull Arena, Leipzig, Germany
Live on BBC One
Preview
Despite picking up a crucial 1-0 win over Austria on Monday, the evening as a whole was not overly positive for the French.
Aside from N’Golo Kante’s commanding display on his return to the international stage, Les Bleus were sub-par and only some heroics from goalkeeper Mike Maignan prevented the match from being an even more tense affair.
Manager Didier Deschamps will also be sweating on the fitness of captain and star striker Kylian Mbappe after he suffered a broken nose in a late accidental clash with Austrian centre-back Kevin Danso.
If Mbappe does end up missing the trip to Leipzig, which looks almost nailed on now, it would give the Netherlands a huge boost and add to the confidence they collected from a comeback victory over Poland last weekend.
Ronald Koeman’s side were far from at their best but showed powers of recovery, substitute Wout Weghorst bagging a crucial winner following Cody Gakpo’s first-half equaliser.
France and the Netherlands met in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, with Les Bleus winning 2-1 away and 4-0 on home soil.
Odds
As they do for most games, France will arrive on Friday as favourites, this time at 2.30. The Netherlands are priced at 3.23.
Betting Tips
Cody Goal-po
Gakpo was the Netherlands’ biggest threat against Poland, shining on the left wing and racking up a fair few shots on goal. The Liverpool ace has scored four goals in four appearances in the group stage of major tournaments and we are backing him to extend that run against France. Gakpo to score anytime is 4.00.
No clean sheets
When two star-studded attacks (which is still the case even if Mbappe is absent) face off against each other, there are usually goals aplenty. With that in mind, we are eyeing up a Bet Builder which relies on Maignan and Bart Verbruggen coming nowhere close to achieving a clean sheet. Both teams to score and over 3.5 goals in the match is 3.60.
Back the draw
Draws have been few and far between so far at Euro 2024 but this match could buck the trend. The game to be level at both half-time and full-time is 4.20, while France to be leading at the break and the match then finishing as a draw is intriguingly priced at 11.00. Don’t forget, the Dutch displayed their comeback ability against Poland!
*Odds are subject to change
Netherlands Team News
Predicted XI (4-3-3): Verbruggen, Dumfries, Van Dijk, De Vrij, Ake, Reijnders, Veerman, Schouten, Malen, Depay, Gakpo
France Team News
Reports suggest Deschamps and France will not take a risk on Mbappe for the Netherlands game but they hope to have the Real Madrid striker back for the final group match against Poland.
Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan, Kounde, Saliba, Upamecano, Hernandez, Kante, Rabiot, Griezmann, Dembele, Thuram, Kolo Muani
Score Prediction
Netherlands 2-2 France
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