France vs Belgium: Preview, Prediction & Betting Tips

For this game, we expect France and Belgium to be a closely contested affair between the two sides. Two of the last five fixtures between the two sides have ended in a draw and the result of this fixture in the last three meetings have been decided by a single goal – Belgium being the victors on two occasions.

Kylian Mbappe and Romelu Lukaku are predicted to make an impact in this game. Mbappe despite his injury, has one goal in three games in this tournament, whereas Lukaku is rather unfortunate not to be leading the Golden Boot race as the striker has had three goals disallowed at this tournament.

Dayot Upamecano presents a high risk for France when it comes to fouls, as the Bayern Munich defender has committed two fouls in three games this summer.

For these reasons, we are leaning towards a 2-1 victory for France. Talent such as Kylian Mbappe should be enough to see them through with the France captain expected to play on through his injury.

France 2-1 Belgium

The round of 16 in the European Championships will be underway at the weekend and the standout game pits the runners-up in Group D and the runners-up in Group E against each other. France faces Belgium in arguably the biggest game of the second round.

Date: 01/07/2024

Kick-Off Time: 17:00

Location: Markur Spiel-Arena

Both France and Belgium would have been disappointed to finish second in their respective groups, as both were predicted to finish as potential comfortable group winners. France and Belgium are both drawn on the perceived tougher side of the draw, with potential matchups against the likes of Spain/Germany further on in the competition. The winner of this tie will face the winner of Portugal/Slovenia in the next round.

France finished second in the group, behind eventual group winners Austria having only picked up five points from a possible nine points on offer. France were largely disappointing despite qualifying, having only scored twice in three games – including a stalemate against Netherlands. France opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over group winners Austria, via an own goal from Maximilian Wober. Their second game saw them draw 0-0 with the Netherlands and in the final game Les Blues drew 1-1 with Poland. That result, alongside Austria beating the Netherlands in the final group game, meant that France would be drawn against Belgium.

Belgium were drawn into a group alongside Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania and remarkably finished on the same points as the other three teams involved. The Red Devils had a better goal difference than Slovakia and Ukraine, but less than Romania so they had to settle for second place.

Belgium began their campaign by suffering a shock defeat against Slovakia in the opening game, in which Romelu Lukaku had two goals disallowed for the Red Devils. Belgium recovered in their second game against group winners Romania by securing a 2-0 win. Youri Tielemans opened the scoring with a brilliant effort from the edge of the area in the first five minutes and victory was sealed in the 80th minute thanks to Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne.

In the previous meeting between the two sides, France were 3-2 winners over Belgium in the Nations League thanks to goals from Theo Hernandez, Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema.

The game will be shown live on ITV and ITVX.

France Team News

France introduced youngster Bradley Barcola for Marcus Thuram in the previous game and could feature once again after performing well against Poland.

Belgium Team News

Belgium have experimented with their wide options throughout the tournament. In their previous game, they deployed Leandro Trossard and Jeremy Doku.

France enters this game on relatively good form, all things considered. Les Blues have won twice in their previous five games, although they are unbeaten in those five having drawn the remaining three games. France are on a run of six games without a defeat, following their 2-0 defeat against Germany back in March.

Before the defeat against Germany, France were unbeaten in their previous four and coincidentally the previous defeat was also against Germany in a friendly. France have one of the stronger squads of the competition and in the attacking areas, they would feel slightly disappointed with their more recent output.

In their last five games, they have scored five goals which averages a goal a game, however, three of France’s goals came in a 3-0 win over Luxembourg. In their last four games, France have only scored twice and conceded once.

In this European Championships, France have yet to find another outlet for goal contributions than captain Kylian Mbappe. The newly signed Real Madrid forward has been directly responsible for 66% of Les Blues’ goals this summer, with Ousmane Dembele being the player who drew the foul for the penalty scored by Mbappe against Poland.

Belgium are also in relatively good form, all things considered. The Red Devils have only lost one game in their last five games, having won three and drawn once in that time. Their only defeat was the opening game defeat against Slovakia. That defeat also marked the only game in a run of 17 where the Red Devils tasted defeat.

Before the defeat against Slovakia, Belgium had been brilliant having won ten from their previous 14 games before the Slovakia game. Belgium’s attack has been more proficient than the French in the last five games, having scored nine goals in their previous five played. Defensively, they’ve been assured having only conceded three goals in five games.

Romelu Lukaku has been in good form over the past five games for club and country, having scored three goals in five games as well as having four goal contributions.

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