France, the Netherlands and England will all need a point in the final round to secure qualification to the round of 16 of the European Championship “Germany 2024” in football, without entering the calculations of third place, but the big three aspire to more than that.
In the fourth group, after settling for a point in its match against the Netherlands, France, the 2022 World Cup runner-up, hopes to remove “The Windmills” from the lead, which it holds on goal difference.
France will conclude its campaign in the group at the Signal Iduna Park stadium in Dortmund when it faces Poland, the last team that has lost any hope of qualifying, as a result of losing its first two matches, the last of which was against Austria 1-3, which at least secured third place.
In order to try to remove the Netherlands from the lead, coach Didier Deschamps’ team must be more effective in front of goal against a Polish team that lost in the last round to Austria 1-3, with top scorer Lewandowski participating as a substitute after recovering from injury.
In Berlin, the Netherlands will face a difficult task against an Austrian team aspiring to reach the final eight for the second time in a row in only its fourth participation in the continental finals.
A draw may be enough for Austria to qualify among the top 4 teams in third place, which will make the match difficult offensively for the Dutch, according to what center back Virgil van Dijk expected.
In Cologne, like France and the Netherlands, England, the runner-up in the last edition, will also need a draw in its match with Slovenia in order to ensure qualification from the third group, in which all four teams have a chance to reach the final price.
After a hard-fought victory over Serbia 1-0, England settled for a lackluster 1-1 draw with Denmark, which put its coach Southgate in the target of criticism and boos directed at him and the team by the fans after the second round match.
In yesterday’s matches, Germany scored through substitute Niklas Vollerkog a goal in stoppage time that gave it a very difficult draw against its neighbor Switzerland 1-1 and the lead in Group A in Frankfurt in the final third round of competitions, while Hungary revived its hopes with a late victory over Scotland 1- 0, and Dan Ndoye opened the scoring for Switzerland in the 28th minute.
With this result, Switzerland secured second place and a ticket to qualify for the next round, while Germany avoided facing strong Spain in the 16th final.
Germany raised its score to 7 points, compared to 5 for Switzerland and 3 for Hungary, which defeated Scotland 1-0 in the same group, while the latter settled for one point.