I still have some hopes for Austria, which was a dark horse for me in this tournament and they have not performed badly at all.
Netherlands has not been convincing, as they struggled a lot to beat one of the big disappointments in the tournament (and one of the worst teams) - Poland, where they had to make a comeback (1:2) scoring the winning goal in the last minutes. Then achieved a good draw against France in a game where they were heavily dominated and conceded 1.33 expected goals, whilst generated just 0.39.
Several players have been at a very high level in these two games: Xavi Simons, van Dijk and Gakpo. For this fixture they just need a point to qualify (even a draw would be fine to qualify as one of the best thirds). They’ll go for the win to qualify as leaders, but however it won’t be easy as they need to win by a bigger margin than France, who has an easy game with Poland who is already out of the tournament.
On the other hand, in my tournament pre-analysis I thought that Austria could be one of the surprises, and they confirmed that to me. They are a very difficult team to beat under Ralf Rangnick management and France struggled a lot to do it in the first round. Have several quality players such as 24 years old RB Leipzig midfield Christoph Baumgartner and veteran striker Marko Arnautović who is part of the Inter Milan’s Serie A title winning squad this season.
They also showed two different faces: a defensive one against France, where did it very well but conceded an own goal, whilst against Poland played a very vertical football, attacking very fast from the beginning and making great counters. And I believe that against the Netherlands will try to make the same plan, as it was very effective and looked unstoppable.
Comparing the Netherlands to Austria after facing the same opponents in the group, the Austrians come out on top. They looked superior against Poland and had more clarity in the final third than the Dutch. Austria's clash vs. France also showed what a strong unit they could be.
Ralf Rangnick's boys asked the World Cup finalists questions that remained unanswered as they exposed a few of their liabilities. The Netherlands can consider themselves lucky with the point they won vs France, who had twice their attempts (16 vs. eight) while enjoying a comfortable 58% possession.
Against France, Austria won the possession battle at 51% and had just one attack less than the tournament favorites (43 vs. 44). Austria recorded a total of 12 attempts on target in their first two matches, placing them fifth in the overall rankings. The Dutch are only 16th, with eight shots.
Austria are well equipped to progress from this group. They were unimpressed with the French parade of glam stars, so there's little reason to believe they'll change their approach when they face the Netherlands.
FRANCE - POLAND
France should go for a big win here to qualify as leaders. Although they have not shown a high yet, are one of the best teams in the tournament and have the potential to win by a big margin against almost any team.
They won their opener against Austria in a grueling game that saw them get over the line against an organized team. Kylian Mbappe broke his nose, which caused him to miss out on the team’s second game against the Dutch, which finished 0-0. Mbappe was named on the bench for that game but they didn’t bring him on. France arguably should have lost the game but were saved by a controversial VAR decision that ruled out a Dutch goal.
The main takeaway against the Dutch was the team lacked a cutting edge without Mbappe. Marcus Thuram and Ousmane Dembele are fine players but they’re not ruthless in front of goal. That’s a huge problem and it’s one the French are desperate to fix. Mbappe has been training in a mask and scored two in a friendly game in the last few days. The fact he took part in that gives us an indication that he’ll be playing on Tuesday, and surely will be motivated to score his first goal in this EURO.
With Mbappe in that front three, they take on a new dimension. France should beat this blunt Poland team either way, but they can tear them to pieces with Mbappe active. The Poles will struggle to deal with his pace and movement and his supporting cast of Antoine Griezmann, Thuram, and Dembele also possesses speed, movement, and vision, which should create plenty of opportunities for Mbappe, and others, to score.
The Polish defense has been poor throughout the tournament and they’re going to struggle against France. These teams met in the World Cup in Qatar, in a game which saw the French win 3-1. It wouldn’t be a shock to see France score just as many goals in this fixture. The back of Mbappe is the key for them and I expect this to be noted in the team.
Poland will try to play for their pride, but their performances have been terrible. Only Zielinski made decent performances in both games, but their defense has been horrible conceding 5 goals and 35 shots between both games, being also dominated in possession.
I expect France to dominate hard in this game, and the question is if they’ll be able to break the defense and score goals. But with the back of Mbappe and also the quality they have upfront, I expect them to score 2-3 goals here, as did in the World Cup and also like Austria and Netherlands did.
我仍然对奥地利抱有一些希望,这是我在本届比赛中的一匹黑马,他们的表现一点也不差。
荷兰队的表现并不令人信服,他们在击败本届比赛中最令人失望的球队之一(也是表现最差的球队之一)波兰队时付出了很大的努力,他们不得不在最后几分钟逆转(1:2)打进致胜的一球。然后在对阵法国队的比赛中取得了一场精彩的平局,在这场比赛中,他们被严重控制,丢了1.33个预期进球,而只产生了0.39个。
有几名球员在这两场比赛中都发挥得非常出色:哈维·西蒙斯、范迪克和加普。对于这场比赛,他们只需要一分就可以出线(即使平局也可以作为最好的三分之一出线)。他们将以领头羊的身份出线,但这并不容易,因为他们需要以比法国队更大的优势获胜,法国队将轻松击败已经出局的波兰队。
另一方面,在我的比赛前分析中,我认为奥地利可能是一个惊喜,他们向我证实了这一点。在拉尔夫·朗尼克的带领下,他们是一支很难被击败的球队,法国队在第一轮就取得了胜利。拥有几名优秀的球员,比如24岁的莱比锡中场鲍姆加特纳,以及本赛季国际米兰意甲冠军阵容中的老将阿瑙托维奇。
他们也展现了两种不同的面貌:一种是防守,对阵法国,他们踢得很好,但丢了一个乌龙球;另一种是对阵波兰,他们踢的是垂直足球,从一开始就进攻很快,反击也很好。我相信在对阵荷兰的比赛中我们也会尝试同样的战术,因为它非常有效,看起来势不可挡。
荷兰队和奥地利队在小组赛中面对同样的对手,相比之下,奥地利队名列前茅。对阵波兰时,他们看起来更有优势,在最后三分之一比荷兰队更清晰。奥地利对法国的比赛也证明了他们是一支多么强大的队伍。
拉尔夫·朗尼克(Ralf Rangnick)的孩子们向世界杯决赛入围者提出了一些问题,但这些问题没有得到回答,因为他们暴露了自己的一些缺点。荷兰队在对阵法国队的比赛中获得了一分,荷兰队可以认为自己很幸运,法国队有两次射门机会(16比8),控球率达到了58%。
在对阵法国的比赛中,奥地利以51%的优势赢得了控球战,并且只比本届杯赛的热门对手(43比44)少了一次进攻。奥地利在前两场比赛中总共有12次射门,排名第五。荷兰队仅排在第16位,有8发子弹。
奥地利已经准备好从小组出线。他们对法国队的明星阵容不感兴趣,所以没有理由相信他们在面对荷兰队时会改变他们的战术。
法国-波兰
法国队应该在这里取得一场大胜,以获得出线资格。虽然他们还没有表现出很高的水平,但他们是本届杯赛中最好的球队之一,并且有可能以很大的优势战胜几乎任何一支球队。
在一场艰苦的比赛中,他们战胜了奥地利,战胜了一支有组织的球队。姆巴佩鼻子骨折,导致他错过了球队与荷兰队的第二场比赛,比赛以0-0结束。姆巴佩在那场比赛中被安排在替补席上,但他们没有让他上场。法国队本应输掉这场比赛,但有争议的VAR判罚排除了荷兰队的进球。
在对阵荷兰的比赛中,最主要的收获就是缺少了姆巴佩的锋线。马库斯·图拉姆和奥斯曼·登贝莱都是优秀的球员,但他们在门前并不无情。这是一个巨大的问题,也是法国迫切希望解决的问题。姆巴佩一直戴着面具训练,并在过去几天的一场友谊赛中打进两球。他参加比赛的事实给了我们一个暗示,他将在周二的比赛中出场,并且肯定会有动力在本届欧洲杯上打进他的第一个进球。
在姆巴佩的三前锋阵容中,他们有了一个新的维度。无论如何,法国队都应该击败这支笨拙的波兰队,但他们可以在姆巴佩活跃的情况下把他们撕成碎片。波兰人将很难对付他的速度和跑动,而他的队友安东尼·格列兹曼、图拉姆和登贝莱也拥有速度、跑动和视野,这将为姆巴佩和其他人创造大量的得分机会。
波兰队的防守在整个比赛中都很糟糕,他们将在与法国队的比赛中挣扎。这两支球队在卡塔尔举行的世界杯上相遇,法国队以3-1获胜。看到法国队在这场比赛中进这么多球也不足为奇。姆巴佩的后背
对他们来说是关键,我希望这一点能在团队中得到注意。波兰队将努力为他们的骄傲而战,但他们的表现太糟糕了。只有齐林斯基在两场比赛中都有不错的表现,但他们的防守非常糟糕,两场比赛共丢5球35次射门,控球也很糟糕。
我希望法国队能在这场比赛中占据主导地位,问题是他们能否突破防守并进球。但凭借姆巴佩的后腰和锋线的实力,我希望他们能在本届世界杯上打入2-3球,就像在世界杯上一样,也像奥地利和荷兰一样。