Euro 2024
Austria vs France Euro 2024 Prediction
France will be looking to bounce back from three years ago when they headed into Euro 2021 as the favourites and were eliminated on penalties by Switzerland in the second round.
Arguably, Didier Deschamps has both the best squad at his disposal and the best player in the world in Kylian Mbappe. Although Real Madrid’s new signing has caught a virus this week the superstar is expected to start the opener at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf.
Mbappe can expect to start out on the left wing, alongside Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele, behind striker Marcus Thuram. Olivier Giroud is an option from the bench should France need a goal in the second half. The coach is spoilt for choice for centre-back options between Dayot Upamecano, Jules Kounde, William Saliba and Ibrahima Konate. The attacking Theo Hernandez should start at left-back and offer support to Mbappe.
N’Golo Kante should start in centre midfield regardless of playing his club football in Saudi Arabia this past season. Eduardo Camavinga is another ball winner in midfield, whilst Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouameni could be available after missing the UEFA Champions League final.
Austria finished 1 point behind Belgium in qualifying and 9 ahead of Sweden. Azerbaijan and Estonia made up the rest of the group. They won 3 of their 4 away games and drew in Belgium. They also spread their 17 goals across the team – Marcel Sabitzer (4), Christoph Baumgartner (3) and Michael Gregoritsch (3) being the top scorers.
Ralf Rangnick will be without captain and star David Alaba in central midfield for the tournament. Kevin Danso of RC Lens is the standout centre-back, whilst Maximilian Wober, Philipp Mwene and Philipp Leinhart all play in the German Bundesliga. Stefan Posch was part of the Bologna side that made a shock UEFA Champions League qualification this past season so the defence has talent.
Virtually all of the midfielders in the squad play in Germany too, with Borussia Dortmund’s Marcel Sabitzer, Bayern Munich’s Konrad Laimer and RB Leipzig’s Christoph Baumgartner the main men. SC Freiburg’s Michael Gregoritsch could be the lone man up front, with 35-year-old Marko Arnautovic an option from the bench.
France started the last World Cup with a 4-1 thumping of Australia, a 1-0 win over Germany in Euro 2021, a 2-1 win over Australia at the 2018 World Cup, and a 2-1 win over Romania at Euro 2016. Didier Deschamps was the head coach in all of those. I see France getting off to a winning start on Monday too, regardless of the all praise the media has been giving to Austria in the build up to the tournament.
Best bet: France to win is 8/15 with Bet365