Euro 2024: Austria vs France preview, H2H, team news, line-ups and prediction

France will begin their Euro 2024 campaign with a fiery clash against Austria on Monday 17 June at Merkur Spiel-Arena (Dusseldorf Arena) in Dusseldorf.

Les Blues are one of the favourites to win the competition and will look to go further past their disappointing Euro 2020 campaign where they crashed out of the round of 16 on penalties to Switzerland.

They had a stellar qualifying campaign winning seven and drawing one of their eight matches. They also netted 29 goals and kept six clean sheets from their eight matches. The World Cup finalists conceded only three goals with two of those goals coming in the 2-2 draw against Greece – their only draw in the qualifying matches. will

Reaching the final of this tournament will see France play in the final of three of the last four major tournaments they’ve participated in since 2018 and winning the competition see the French side set a historic record as the first and only side to win the European Championship four times.

Head coach, Didier Deschamps will eye two historic feats in Germany when the competition kicks off. The 55-year-old could become the first person to win the World Cup and European Championship as a player and coach and will look to unleash his star-studded team to achieve that feat.

Austria on the other hand are becoming a strong force in the international scene with head coach, Ralf Rangnick carrying out an outstanding rejuvenation with the team.

The former Manchester United boss had a tough start to life at the helm that saw the Das Team relegated to the second tier of the UEFA Nations League. That looked to be a factory reset for the team who recovered to put up remarkable performances that secured their qualification to the European Championship in Germany.

This will be Austria’s third successive Euro participation and fourth overall in the competition. They head into this competition in good form, losing only one of their last 14 matches. They are also on a remarkable goalscoring streak in their last 15 matches and have not failed to score a goal in one year and nine months.

Rangnick will hope to guide his side past their round-of-16 finish in the last edition of the tournament and will prepare his side for a big performance to end an abysmal record of two losses in their last three opening matches in the competition.

Their style of play is very reminiscent of the philosophy of their head coach, Rangnick – the progenitor of “gegen pressing” – a style that has seen his team press aggressively from the final third. Their energetic pressing has been a fundamental facet of their game, which has seen them record the least number of opposing passes per defensive action of all teams during the qualifiers.

They now gear up to face a French side that is solid in all facets of the game. Ragnick will need more than just pressing to stop the rampaging France attack and it will be interesting to see what tactical tweaks he’ll pull up for the crucial opener.

Austria vs France match details

• Date: Monday, 17 June, 2024
• Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
• Venue: Merkur Spiel-Arena
• Kick-off time: 08:00 PM BST 07:00 PM UTC
• Tickets: Fans can buy Austria vs France tickets through UEFA channels or via secondary marketplaces onlines.

Match stats and head-to-head

• France have won six of their last ten opening matches in the European Championship.

• Les Bleus have reached the final in three of the last four finals in major tournaments they’ve participated in.

• Since the 2016 edition of the European Championship, no European player has provided more goal contributions than Antoine Griezmann(18) in any major tournament.

• France’s head coach, Didier Deschamps, is on course to become the first person to win the World Cup and the European Championship as a player and coach.

• These two sides have met 26 times with France holding the superior record of 14 wins compared to Austria’s nine wins while three of these fixtures have ended in draws.

• The last time these two teams met was in the 2022 UEFA Nations League, where a 1:1 draw was followed by a 2-0 win for France courtesy of goals from Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappe.

• Austria have found the back of the net in 15 consecutive matches. The last time they failed to score was in 2022 in the 2-0 loss against France.

• Mbappe provided 14 goal contributions during the qualifying campaign, only Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku contributed more (15).

• Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner holds the record for the quickest goal in international football history after opening the scoring for Austria after six seconds against Slovakia in March.

Team news

There was a major scare in the French camp after reports suggested Mbappe might have taken a knock. The 25-year-old played only 15 minutes in Les Bleus’ 0-0 draw with Canada.

The forward revealed to reporters after the game that he was fine stating, ‘It is going very well’. He’s tipped to be fully fit to feature in France’s opener against Austria.

While France possesses some of the most in-form youngsters in Europe, Deschamps is expected to utilise some of his most experienced players which can be visibly seen in the callup of Ngolo Kante.

The former Chelsea midfielder is expected to join other experienced France stars including Griezmannn, and Olivier Giroud in the starting lineup.

Austria are without their captain, David Alaba who is still recuperating from a lengthy knee injury that has kept him out for most of last season.

Xaver Schlager also misses out from the team with an injury.

While experienced players like Marco Arnautovic, Marcel Sabitzer and Konrad Laimer are expected to lead the team, Ragnick’s squad includes an array of some of the inform players in the Bundesliga and across Europe including Stefan Posch, Florian Grillitsch, and Michael Gregoritsch.

In the absence of Alaba, the likes of Philipp Mwene, Kevin Danso, Gernot Trauner and Philipp Lienhart are all ready and fit to deputise in centre-back for the opener against France.

Austria vs France predicted starting lineup

Austria predicted starting lineup:

Schlager, Posch, Querfeld, Danso, Mwene; Seiwald, Grillitsch; Laimer, Baumgartner, Sabitzer; Arnautovic

France predicted starting lineup:

Maignan; Clauss, Konate, Upamecano, Hernandez; Tchouameni, Kante Camavinga; Griezmann, Mbappe, Giroud.

Prediction

Austria will be facing their biggest test yet against the second-best team in the World who will be eager to clinch an historic fourth European title and their first in over two decades.

The firepower in Les Bleus’ frontline accounts for over 60 goal contributions, which is more than the whole Austrian starting lineup.

However, one interesting thing about Rangnick and his impressive Austrian team is their tactical adaptability and manoeuvring capability. They can set up in a compact shape that will limit France’s rampaging forwards to few goal actions.

France are tipped to dominate this game but Austria can also pose a threat especially from counterattacks.

We’re predicting a 2:1 win for France.