Wednesday, August 30, 2017

France vs Netherlands
Competition: World Cup Qualification Europe
Date: 31 August 2017
Kick-off Time: 19:45 GMT
Venue: Stade de France, Paris.


Winning in Amsterdam, Netherlands, might mean a direct qualification for the French team for Russia as their schedule by the end of qualifying cycle is far less demanding than of the Swedes, who are positioned above the Tricolours only due to having better goal difference. It is true that in the previous round the Swedes won at home coach Deschamps players by 2-1, which was their first defeat in this qualifications but in the meantime the French won too although it was a friendly match with England 3-2.
Of course, that should raise their self-confidence before continuation of the qualification especially as they have no more place for mistakes if they want to finish as the first in the group. Regarding the Tricolour team that will face the Netherlands, Deschamps cannot count on injured defenders: Varane and Mendy, and winger Payet, and besides he left out from the rooster midfielder: Bakayoko and Sissoko, forwards Martial and Dembele, as well as from before written off Benzema.

France last 5 matches:
25/03/17 Luxembourg 1 – 3 France
28/03/17 France 0 – 2 Spain
02/06/17 France 5 – 0 Paraguay
09/06/17 Sweden 2 – 1 France
13/06/17 France 3 – 2 England
The Dutch team has a fair deal of problems in this qualification and besides home defeat to France they lost to Bulgaria away two rounds ago, while out of four remaining games, they won three and drew away with Sweden. In the end that might not be enough to end up even on the 2nd place, which leads to the play-off, given they have three points fewer than the French and Swedes four rounds before the end.
On top of it, they have this difficult away match in Paris, although their self-confidence has increased a bit in the meantime after they won friendlies with:the Ivory Coast, Morocco and Luxembourg by high 5-0 in the previous qualifying round. Right because of that coach, Advocaat, has announced that will not make too many changes in the starting line-up, especially as defenders: Karsdorp, van Dijk and Bruma, and midfielder Klaassen are out of action because of injuries.

Netherlands last 5 matches:
25/03/17 Bulgaria 2 – 0 Netherlands
28/03/17 Netherlands 1 – 2 Italy
31/05/17 Morocco 1 – 2 Netherlands
04/06/17 Netherlands 5 – 0 Cote d’Ivoire
09/06/17 Netherlands 5 – 0 Luxembourg


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