For the French supporters, the Greek team is a June 2004 nightmare… A padlocked match, a header from Angelos Charisteas and the Greeks who play a dirty trick on Zidane, Pirès, Desailly and others from the Euro quarter-finals. Things have changed a lot since then. For this qualifying match for Euro 2024, which will be played in a sold-out Stade de France, Monday June 19 at 8:45 p.m., the Blues still display high-sounding names, but their opponent stagnates in the backwater of average European selections, without stroke of brilliance or durability in major tournaments. Distrust all the same, because the team of coach Gustavo Poyet, victorious against Ireland on Friday (2-1), is for the moment well launched in the group of Blues (2nd ahead of the Netherlands).
One last effort before the holidays. Didier Deschamps’ Les Bleus have had a perfect start to the tedious qualifying for next year’s European Championship in Germany: three games, three wins and no goals conceded. “It’s the last game, the last big effort”underlined “DD”, who does not want “to neglect nothing” before the summer break. The month of June has rarely smiled on the Blues, exhausted by extended seasons. Like last year, where the France team lost against Croatia and Denmark in the League of Nations.
Suspense on the line of attack. If the backbone of Didier Deschamps’ team is known, the hierarchy remains unclear in attack to support Kylian Mbappé. The dragster wingers Kingsley Coman and Ousmane Dembelé have never convinced over time, when Randal Kolo Muani seems to embody the future at the fore against an Olivier Giroud who is beginning to feel the weight of his 36 springs on his shoulders.
A team from Greece on the upward slope. Absent from all major competitions since 2014, the Greek team has nonetheless made a promising start in these qualifications with two successes in two games. “We have a lot of respect for Greece and what they are capable of doing., acknowledged Didier Deschamps at a press conference. VSa should be a high level match. I won’t overlook anything.”