France vs Luxembourg-Stade Saint-Symphorien is the venue for France’s first match of the month on Wednesday evening, as Les Bleus host Luxembourg in an international friendly.
Didier Deschamps’ men will also test their mettle against Canada before dreams of Euro 2024 glory take over, while their visitors will instead look to their next Nations League campaign.
Match preview
France vs Luxembourg-Now the only living man to boast World Cup honors as both a player and manager – following the deaths of Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer earlier this year – Deschamps righted some Qatari wrongs in a Euro campaign where his men were considered one of the heavyweights beloved.
A year-and-a-half on from Argentina’s penalty heartache, France head to Germany on the back of a near-perfect qualifying campaign, in which they collected 22 points from 24 to 14 on offer and secured their biggest win in history. -0 the destruction of Gibraltar.
Les Bleus prize an interesting group with the Netherlands, Poland and an in-form Austria as they look to end a 24-year blitz on the European stage, having not won the continent since 2000, before exiting in the last-16 21 years ago at Euro 2020.
Preparations for this year’s rally didn’t start off swimmingly in March, where Germany secured their second friendly football success against Les Bleus in as many months, and although Deschamps’ side responded against Chile, that success was hardly a whitewash at 3-2.
Such slights will be quickly forgiven if Deschamps leads his nation to Euro 2024 glory in mid-July, though, and Les Bleus have not lost back-to-back home friendlies since 2013, leaving Luxembourg with a mountain to climb at home to Metz the ground.
While France have been the tournament’s mainstays for decades, Luxembourg have yet to earn their World Cup or Euro baptism and, despite an admirable effort to qualify for Group J, will also be watching this summer’s continental affairs from their own sofas.
The Red Lions won half of their matches and drew two more to finish with 17 points to their name, and although their exploits were enough to finish third behind perfect Portugal and Slovakia, France vs Luxembourg-their Nations League performance paved the way for a playoff appearance.
However, Luxembourg’s dreams were quickly dashed by a 2-0 defeat to Georgia in their semi-final tie in March, but the green shoots of their recovery were present in a 2-1 friendly win over Kazakhstan just five days later, another sign of that. France vs Luxembourg-Their meteoric rise.
Two grueling June friendlies against France and Belgium will serve as excellent tests of their recent progress, with Luke Holtz’s men facing Northern Ireland, Belarus and Bulgaria in League C before preparing for another promotion to the third tier of the Nations League.
While 16 of Luxembourg’s previous 18 matches against France have surprisingly ended in defeat, one of two instances where they have come up short is in their most recent competition, a goalless draw during 2018 World Cup qualifiers ending a 14-match losing streak equence.
Team News
France vs Luxembourg-there were some shocks in Deschamps’ Euro 2024 squad selection, 2018 World Cup-winning midfielder N’Golo Kante was certainly among them; The 33-year-old returns to Blues duty on the back of a productive.
Tricky Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola is the only uncapped player in Deschamps’ ranks, but thoughts will be spared for his team-mate Lucas Hernandez, who saw his World Cup 2022 campaign curtailed by a serious knee injury and will miss Euro 2024. France vs Luxembourg-A similar problem.
Real Madrid duo Ferland Mendy and Eduardo Camavinga should be given more time to recover from their Champions League final exploits, and although fellow Blancos man Aurelien Choumeni missed the win against Borussia Dortmund with a foot injury, he has confirmed he will be fit. Euro.
Meanwhile, long-serving Luxembourg boss Holtz will not have midfield stalwart Leandro Barreiro at his disposal this month, but the red and whites will otherwise take most of their recognizable names to France.
They include 30-year-old midfielder Sebastian Thiel – who scored a stunning goal against Real Madrid for Sheriff Tiraspol in a 2021 Champions League match – and winger Gerson Rodriguez, Luxembourg’s all-time top scorer with 21 goals.
Defender Laurent Jans – who plays in the German third tier – captains the visitors, and if he turns up at the Stade Saint-Symphorien he will surpass fellow 102-cap man Mario Mutch and become his country’s all-time top male appearance maker. .
France vs Luxembourg lineup:
France probable starting lineup:
Magnan; Kounde, Pavard, Upamecano, T. Hernandez; Jair-Emery, Rabiot; Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe; Giroud
Luxembourg Probable Starting Lineup:
Maurice; Bohnert, Chanot, Mahmutovic, Jans; Sinani, S. Thiel, Olesen, Martins Pereira, Dardari; Rodriguez
We say: France 3-0 Luxembourg
France vs Luxembourg-As admirable as Luxembourg’s exploits have been over the past year, Holtz’s men are still a ways from giving big boys like France a good run for their money.
France vs Luxembourg-Deschamps is willing to make little changes with his selection, but the XI that starts and ends the friendly with Les Bleus should make little difference to an emphatic scoreline.