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Mbappe leads France in Euro 2024 group against teams he loves scoring against

Fri, Jun 7, 2024
Soccer News (AP)

France and the Netherlands renew their recent rivalry at the European Championship with fresh memories of their hard luck exits at the World Cup 18 months ago.

Both were beaten in Qatar in penalty shootouts against Argentina - France in the epic final, the Dutch in the quarterfinals - after rallying late from two goals down.

The first post-World Cup game for each was the opener of their Euro 2024 qualifying group in March last year. France raced to an early three-goal lead and won 4-0 in Paris.

France goes for three straight wins against the Netherlands when they meet in the late game on the longest summer day, June 21, in Leipzig.

That will be the second round of games in Group D that includes Austria and Poland, which also played Argentina at the World Cup. The Poles also trailed 2-0 to the eventual champion and it stayed that way.

Here's a look at Group D:

FRANCE

France reached the final in three of its past four major tournaments, winning the 2018 World Cup, with just Euro 2020 counting as a failure. Kylian Mbappe's penalty was saved and France lost the shootout to Switzerland after a 3-3 draw in the round of 16. Mbappe arrives for his first tournament game since that 2022 World Cup final hat trick in a losing cause against Argentina, as captain of the most talented squad at Euro 2024. He also might be feeling liberated after a testy final few months at Paris Saint-Germain ahead of his long-expected move to Real Madrid. Mbappe's appetite for goals against these group rivals is such that he scored twice against the Netherlands in each of their qualifying group games, twice against Poland at the World Cup, and once in each game against Austria in 2022 in the Nations League. The 25-year-old superstar has 48 goals in 79 games for France, chasing down teammate Olivier Giroud's record of 57 for Les Bleus. Giroud's stellar international career ends after Euro 2024 when, at age 37, he will join Los Angeles FC.

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NETHERLANDS

Ronald Koeman has coached the Netherlands through qualifying for back-to-back European Championships. This time he sees the job through to the finals tournament. After Euro 2021 was postponed for one year in the COVID-19 pandemic, Koeman left to take the coveted job at his former club Barcelona, still then with Lionel Messi. The Dutch went to the last Euro coached by Frank de Boer and lost in the round of 16 to the Czech Republic. Koeman was fired by Barcelona after 14 months and one Spanish cup title, then re-hired by the Dutch federation to succeed Louis van Gaal after the 2022 World Cup. In qualifying, Koeman's team was efficient in winning all six games against teams not named France and conceding just one goal, from a penalty by Ireland. Now he seems ready to unleash a reshaped formation with dynamic wing backs Denzel Dumfries and Jeremie Frimpong.

AUSTRIA

Predicting a "dark horse" contender to be European champion has recently been a fool's errand. Austria in 2016 and Turkey three years ago both went home winless after the group stage. Still, Austria has been in the conversation again. Coach Ralf Rangnick has rebuilt his reputation after a few dysfunctional months at Manchester United ended in 2022 and created some expectation for this Austria team. At least until the knee injuries hit. Captain David Alaba's season was ended in December playing for Real Madrid. Since an impressive international break in March - beating Euro 2024 teams Slovakia and Turkey (a 6-1 rout in Vienna) - goalkeeper Alex Schlager and midfielder Xaver Schlager also got injured. The midfield is still a strength with high-end talent in the Bundesliga: Bayern Munich's Konrad Laimer, Borussia Dortmund's Marcel Sabitzer and Leipzig's Christoph Baumgartner, whose goal after six seconds in Slovakia was the fastest ever in a men's national team game.

POLAND

Poland was beaten easily by France at the World Cup, 3-1 in the round of 16 in Qatar. That tournament seemed to give little joy to the Polish players under cautious coach Czeslaw Michniewicz, who left soon after. It did not improve with Fernando Santos, the Euro 2016-winning coach for Portugal, who was fired last September. Poland eventually qualified via the playoffs under coach Michal Probierz after having zero shots on target in a 0-0 draw at Wales until the penalty shootout. Veteran goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny made the key save in Cardiff as captain Robert Lewandowski turned away unable to watch. They remain the core of the team and this could be their international farewell, as the 35-year-old Lewandowski looks to add to his national records of 148 games and 82 goals. Poland's last group game is against France in Dortmund, where he was a feted star from 2010-14.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

GRAHAM DUNBAR Dunbar is an Associated Press sports news reporter in Geneva, Switzerland. He focuses on the governing bodies, institutions and politics of international sports. twitter mailto "

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