JAKARTA - Austria must prepare a special formula when they face France in the Euro 2024 Group D match at the Dusseldorf Arena on Tuesday morning at 02.00 WIB.
How not, France was one of six unbeaten teams during the Euro 2024 qualifiers. Les Bleus won seven of the eight qualifying Group B matches for Euro 2024.
Not only unbeaten, France is also very terrible because of their fertility and resilience.
France is Portugal's second most productive team during the Euro 2024 qualifiers. If Portugal score 36 goals, then France score 29 goals.
France also became the second team after Portugal conceded the least during the Euro 2024 qualifiers. Portugal conceded two goals, while France conceded three goals.
This picture implies how sharp the French attack team is as well as how tough it is to be behind Didier Deschamps' team.
Whereas during the qualifying round, three of the five teams facing France were the Netherlands, Greece, and Ireland which were not a tin team.
France's terrible history during that qualification could make Austria worried. They were forced to prepare a strategy to reduce the French attack sector, but at the same time they had to think hard about how to penetrate French defenses.
However, Austria is actually not an arbitrary opponent. They have only lost once to eight qualifying matches for Euro 2024. The only team to beat Austria in the qualifying round is Belgium.
After a 1-1 draw in the first meeting with Belgium which was also the only draw recorded by Austria, the team made by Ralf Rangnick finally surrendered 2-3 to Belgium in Vienna on October 13, 2023.
This is Austria's third meeting with France in a major football tournament. In the previous two meetings, they beat each other. Austria won 3-2 in the 1934 World Cup, while France won 1-0 in the 1982 World Cup.
In their last ten meetings in all competitions, Austria won only once, namely in September 2008 when France won 3-1 in World Cup qualifiers.
But in the latest meeting of the two teams in 2022, they drew 1-1 in the Nations League before France won 2-0 in the second meeting.
This shows how difficult Austria is to beat France, which has a brilliant history in major football tournaments.
Didier Deschamps' team itself has always reached the final in three of the last four major football tournaments he has participated in.
After failing in the 2016 Euro final, France successfully won the 2018 World Cup, but then lost in the 2022 World Cup final.
In the European Cup, France has participated in the final round of this continental tournament in a total of eleven times.
The 2024 edition in Germany is the ninth consecutive Euro followed by France. Only Germany surpassed France in terms of appearing at the longest in a row in the European Cup. Hosts Germany have participated in 14 consecutive European Cups.
On the other hand, Austria is on its fourth trip in the European Cup. They first qualified in 2008 when they hosted the edition.
Austria had reached the round of 16 at Euro 2020 which was its best achievement in the European Cup.
It takes militancy for the Austrian attack to break into Les Blues. Unfortunately, Austria is not very productive in the three Euros they participated in beforehand.
The 3-1 win over North Macedonia at Euro 2020 was the first time they scored more than one goal.
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