France expected to top Euro 2024 group but watch out for Austria

PARIS: France are inevitably the favourites to top Group D at Euro 2024 but suggestions they will cruise through the first round might be wide of the mark given the presence of the Netherlands and a resurgent Austria in their section.

The French are leading contenders to win the trophy but there are legitimate questions to be asked about the current condition of the 2022 World Cup runners-up. A home friendly defeat by Germany in March and a slightly fortuitous win over Chile a few days later suggested that Didier Deschamps´ team need not necessarily be feared.

Kylian Mbappe´s form is a concern to some extent, given he was not a regular for Paris Saint-Germain in the final months of the season and his departure from the club, and move to Real Madrid, have clearly been a distraction.

Not that Deschamps necessarily agrees. “You don´t think he´s in form? He just scored 44 goals in a season,” he said of Mbappe last week. There are also questions to be answered about the form and fitness of Deschamps´ defensive options -- not least Dayot Upamecano -- while France are hoping key midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni fully recovers in time from the foot injury which ruled him out of the Champions League final.

The format of a 24-team Euros -- the four best third-placed teams as well as the top two in each group advance to the last 16 -- makes it hard to imagine France failing to reach the knockout phase. Any serious problems for Les Bleus are unlikely to arrive until later, and they are eager to make up for what happened at the last two Euros played under Deschamps -- they lost the 2016 final to Portugal on home soil and went out on penalties to Switzerland in the last 16 in 2021.

The Netherlands should be the next strongest side in the group, but defeats home and away to France in qualifying indicate a gap between those teams. The Dutch were quarter-finalists at the last World Cup, since when Ronald Koeman has returned for a second spell in charge as the successor to Louis van Gaal.

They will forever be associated with the iconic side that won the 1988 Euros, starring Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, but they have not won a knockout tie at the finals of the tournament since 2004.

Koeman does boast a core of players of the highest quality, including Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong, Jeremie Frimpong, and 21-year-old midfielder Xavi Simons. De Jong must shake off an ankle injury, however, and the Oranje could do with getting off to a good start against Poland in Hamburg on June 16.