The Blues can validate their ticket for the next Euro in the event of a victory against the Netherlands on Friday. A draw could also be enough but the French players aim for excellence.
The more time passes, the more we understand Didier Deschamps’ attachment to the new generation of players on the French team, who stood out at the World Cup in Qatar. These Blues are gifted, not careless but diligent, top of the class style. Against the Netherlands, Friday October 13, at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, an ambitious team would aim for the evening’s objective: qualification for Euro 2024, which could be achieved through a victory, or a match draw combined with a defeat for Greece in Ireland.
These Blues are aiming even better: since the start of the gathering in Clairefontaine on Monday, they have been discussing among themselves the fact of finishing these qualifiers with the maximum number of points and without conceding a single goal. Finishing first in the group would allow France to automatically be seeded at the Euro. “We want to look at the draw a little more calmly if we qualify.”explained Aurélien Tchouameni, an old veteran of this team at only 23 years old, the best representative of this new generation.
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If they want to do as well as the first leg against the Netherlands (4-0) and exhibit their performance at the Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam, the top of the class will have to catch up: their last outing, in a friendly match in Dortmund , ended in a surprising defeat against a dying German selection (1-2). “This match was supposed to give the players playing time“, reassured Didier Deschamps to clarify that this setback has already been forgotten.
A revamped French defense
Facing the Blues will appear on Friday evening a team from the Netherlands which is fighting at a distance with Greece to obtain the second qualifying place in this group B. A team which, for this “gala match”, according to Deschamps, has ambitions. But Ronald Koeman, the Dutch coach, had to cope without a dozen injured players, including the World Cup revelation Cody Gakpo, the metronome Frenkie de Jong, the colossal Matthijs de Ligt and the striker Memphis Depay.
“I’ve never experienced this to this extent before“, lamented Ronald Koeman. Asked about the Dutch difficulties, Didier Deschamps was keen to emphasize the quality of the “Oranje” despite these injuries, but above all started with a “U.S. too”, to recall the tricolor physical glitches. Among the Blues, the massacre is in defense. In the middle, Ibrahima Konaté and Lucas Hernandez will meet for the first time during this meeting.
And if the successive withdrawals of Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba and Axel Disasi have served as a reminder that France certainly has the best talent in the world for the central defender position, it is necessarily damaging that the titular hinge in the mind of the coach (Konaté -Upamecano) cannot get his bearings and work on his automatisms eight months before the Euro.
“Mbappé needs peace”
To the right of this defense, in the absence of the holder Jules Koundé, it is Jonathan Clauss who will wear the tricolor jersey almost a year after having experienced the immense disappointment of not being selected for the World Cup. In “the Venice of the north”, the experimental defense established by Didier Deschamps will do everything not to take on water. It will rain in Amsterdam on Friday evening but the roof of the Johan Cruyff Arena will be closed, as for match eve training on Thursday, and that’s it.
The fate of the Tricolores will also and above all depend on Kylian Mbappé. Mute for four matches, the Parisian appeared blunted during his last outings and his summer preparation, far from optimal, seems to be penalizing him. “He needs peace and quiet.”, underlined his coach Thursday. If the captain and his flock finally drown in the canals of Amsterdam against the Oranje, they will still be able to obtain their qualification against Gibraltar on November 18. But everything wouldn’t be perfect and that doesn’t seem to be on the cards.