After the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Euro 2024 football will be looming quickly, with playoff matches scheduled from March to November 2023. The France team will face, in group B, the Netherlands, Ireland, Greece and Gibraltar, determined the draw, Sunday, October 9 in Frankfurt (Germany).
Poured into hat 2 after its poor results in the League of Nations (1 victory in six games), the Blues have therefore inherited, with the Dutch selection, a large piece on the road which must lead France to Germany on June 14 to July 14. The Orange of Virgil van Dijk and Memphis Depay are the European team in form in recent months.
We also find in this group B of the playoffs Ireland, a bad memory of the France team which had hardly beaten Eire in 2009 on the road to the 2010 World Cup with the help of a rough hand from Thierry Henry, and Greece, European champions in 2004 having beaten Zinédine Zidane’s France in the quarter-finals. Finally, the draw reserved an unprecedented opponent for the France team: the modest Gibraltar team, which the Blues have never faced.
The first two qualifying places
Among the other groups, the most challenging (group C) combines Italy and England, revenge for the Euro final won by the Nazionale at Wembley in 2021, as well as Ukraine. Russia was not invited to the draw due to the war in Ukraine. Group A is made up of Spain, Scotland and Norway from the nugget Erling Haaland. And the very dense group D includes Croatia, vice-world champion, Wales and Turkey.
The players of coach Didier Deschamps – but will he still be after the World Cup in Qatar? – must finish in one of the first two places in the group to validate their ticket for Euro 2024. A goal within their reach if France does not make mistakes against Greece or Ireland.
And even in such a case, the Blues would have a second chance: three tickets will be distributed during the two-round play-offs in March 2024, in which twelve nations will participate on the basis of their classification in the League of Nations. And the positioning of the Blues in Ligue A (first division) practically ensures them of being there.