Austria vs France Euro 2024 Prediction: Can Rangnick upset Les Bleus in Group D opener?
World Cup runners-up France kick off their Euro 2024 campaign with a tough opening game against Ralf Rangnick’s Austria side.
Austria vs France Euro 2024 Prediction: Can Austria shock Les Bleus?
Austria vs France Latest Prediction
Based on FIFA’s world ranking, France are the best team in Europe, sitting second only behind Argentina — who beat them in the 2022 World Cup final. France didn’t have as much success in Euro 2020, five years on from being losing finalists to Portugal at their home Euros, beaten in the last 16. However, France did win their opening game of Euro 2020. In fact, they’ve won their opening Euros game in six of their 10 appearances at the tournament. Austria, meanwhile, are appearing at the European Championships for just the fourth time and have lost two of their three previous openers.
However, that doesn’t mean that Austria will be pushovers. They actually go into this tournament in good form. Since the end of their torrid 2022 UEFA Nations League campaign, Austria have lost just one of their past 14 games, beaten by Belgium in Euro 2024 qualifying. However, they have scored in each of their past 15 matches. The last team to keep Austria out were France in September 2022, with a 2-0 win in the UEFA Nations League.
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If they want to win the European Championship for a third time, France must overcome a tough group consisting of Netherlands, Poland and Austria.
After disappointment at the World Cup in Qatar that saw them lose on penalties in the final to Argentina despite Kylian Mbappé’s hat-trick, Didier Deschamps’ men will be hopeful of going one step further and bringing home the trophy in Germany.
Up first are an Austrian side that have impressed under new manager Ralf Rangnick, qualifying in second place just one point behind Belgium and only suffering one defeat in their eight games. Despite their improvement, we still expect France to come out on top in this game and start the tournament with a win as they look to top Group D.
In qualifying, Les Bleus were near perfect. They scored 29 goals, kept six clean sheets and conceded just three goals in their eight matches, winning seven and drawing one. Their only blip came in a 2-2 draw against Greece, but this was after they had already secured top spot with a weakened side put out by Didier Deschamps.
They will once again look to talisman Kylian Mbappé to get them over the line, who is full of confidence after another 40+ goal season for PSG, sealing his dream move to Real Madrid and securing the World Cup Golden Boot in Qatar in 2022.
Austria Latest Team News
Premier League fans will already know Marcel Sabitzer and Marko Arnautovic from their time with Manchester United and Stoke respectively, and now their exploits for Borussia Dortmund and Inter, but it’s Bayern Munich versatile midfielder/right-back Konrad Laimer who knits everything together nicely for Ralf Rangnick.
- Read more: Austria odds to win Euro 2024: Probability, path to final, tactics, stats and final squad
The 26-year-old put in some impressive performances in the Bundesliga and the Champions League in 2023/24 and will be looking to drive his country forward in Germany and make it out of a tough group. He should line up alongside Florian Grillitsch and Nicolas Seiwald in a strong midfield that would be a test for anyone. And Austria’s success is likely to be built on their defence. David Alaba misses out through injury, but Philipp Mwene, Kevin Danso, Gernot Trauner and Philipp Lienhart are the men likely tasked with protecting Heinz Lindner in goal.
France Latest Team News
After the news that Lucas Hernandez has torn his ACL and will miss the tournament, a place at centre-back opened up with William Saliba, Ibrahima Konate and Dayot Upamecano all fighting for two spots, with Jules Kounde expected to start at right-back.
- Read more: France odds to win Euro 2024: Probability, path to final, tactics, stats and final squad
Antoine Griezmann will continue in his new hybrid No.10 role that he has excelled in for his country, just behind France’s all-time record goalscorer Olivier Giroud, who is expected to get the nod once again up front. Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé will do the damage from the wide positions, with Mbappé free to cut in and allow the energetic Theo Hernandez to do what he does best and fly down the left-hand side.
Real Madrid pair Aurélien Tchouaméni and the versatile Eduardo Camavinga, who can fill in at left-back or centre-back if needed, should anchor the midfield with Adrien Rabiot and N’Golo Kanté on hand if either are unavailable.
Austria vs France Head to Head
These two sides last met in the 2022 Nations League with France remaining unbeaten in both games. First came a 1-1 draw in Austria before goals from Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud handed Didier Deschamps’ side a 2-0 win.
| Austria vs France H2H Since 1990 | |||||||
| Date | Score | Ground | |||||
| 22/09/22 | 2-0 | Stade de France, Paris | |||||
| 10/06/22 | 1-1 | Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna | |||||
| 14/10/09 | 3-1 | Stade de France, Paris | |||||
| 06/09/08 | 3-1 | Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna | |||||
| 28/03/07 | 1-0 | Stade de France, Paris | |||||
| 19/08/98 | 2-2 | Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna | |||||
| 27/03/93 | 1-0 | Stade de France, Paris | |||||
| 14/10/92 | 2-0 | Stade de France, Paris | |||||
How to watch Austria vs France Live
Group D sees Austria take on France in Düsseldorf on June 17 and all of the action will be live on ITV1 or STV, as well as online on ITVX or STV Player.
Every game at Euro 2024 will be shown live on either BBC or ITV, with the two platforms sharing the broadcast rights.
