That’s it from me. Thanks for reading and for your emails. Congratulations to France, commiserations to a very useful Austria side.
Until next time!
Didier Deschamps: “Yes, Kylian Mbappé has probably broken his nose”
Deschamps was talking to French broadcaster BF1. It remains unclear if Mbappé will play a part in France’s next game against Netherlands on Friday. If he does, he will surely play in a face mask.
Barney Ronay’s match report
This is where the result leaves Group D.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | France | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Poland | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 4 | Austria | 1 | -1 | 0 |
Next up on Friday: France face Netherlands in one of the marquee games of the group stage. Austria will fancy themselves against Poland. If the results go to form (France beating Netherlands and Austria beating Poland) then it will be a very tasty final game between Austria and Netherlands as they battle for second place in the group.
Perhaps worth revisiting Barney Ronay on Kanté from 2019.
Updated
Kanté is given the player of the match award. Which is entirely justified. Geezer was rolling back the years.
That is Didier Deschamps’ 100th win as France manager.
This was the aerial duel which led to Mbappé’s injury, faceplanting Danso’s shoulder. I can’t confirm that the Frenchman has broken his nose, but it was going in about three different directions when he left the field of play, so I would be shocked if it isn’t broken.
I wonder if he will have to wear some fancy facemask now? Is it feasible that his tournament is over?
Updated
Full-time: Austria 0-1 France
A hard-fought victory for Les Bleus. Austria put in some performance.
90+7 min: Breathless stuff here. Austria pushing for an equaliser as Arnautovic nearly latches onto a knockdown, before France counter-attack once more.
90+6 min: Giroud has a chance to end the game, but the veteran striker airkicks his finish! Great work from Kolo Muani to create some space on the byline but that was a bad miss. I think Danso might have put him off, perhaps he got a touch.
Updated
90+4 min: “Mbappe walking back onto the field in order to sit down and waste time, players should consider how acts of pettiness might echo through the ages,” emails Drew Ellis. “For everything great Rivaldo did, when I picture him now, it’s falling down clutching his face after the ball is kicked at his legs”.
90+2 min: Things are really hotting up. Wimmer claims he got an elbow to the face in France’s box, but the referee waves play on. Danso is booked. Things are very, very tense.
90 min: Nine minutes added on. Austria also make further changes: Mwene for Prass and Laimer for Schmid.
88 min: More chaos as Mbappe is taken off the field. France try and fail to make a sub, but the referee waves play on, so Mbappé enters the field of play illegally, sits down and the referee is forced to stop play. Yellow card for Mbappé but France can make their subs: Giroud for Mbappe and Griezmann for Fofana.
85 min: Mbappé is still down, with blood streaming out of his nose. Replays show that he headed Danso’s shoulder with some significant force. Ouch! Oh, my. Mbappé staggers back to his feet but his nose is quite obviously broken. Never before has Mbappe looked more like Steve Bruce.
Updated
83 min: From the free-kick, all hell breaks loose. Mbappé takes a whack to the face as Danso beats him to the cross, then Wimmer breaks at pace. The Austrian substitute breaks two challenges and looks like he might get clear before Kante – of course – sprints across to make a potentially match-changing tackle.
82 min: Mbappé finds room on the left. Laimer tracks him and seemingly does a good job of winning the ball from France’s talisman. But the referee awards a free kick to Les Bleus, much to the fury of Laimer, who gets a yellow card. It’s not clear if that’s for the challenge, or for dissent. But France have a promising free-kick just wide of the box.
80 min: How does the saying go? That 71% of the world is water, and the rest is covered by N’Golo Kanté. An absolutely ridiculous performance tonight from the 33-year-old on his first France start in two years.
78 min: Chance for Austria! Laimer finds some room outside France’s box on the turn, slips a pass through to Baumgartner, who slides in with Maignan to reach the ball. The Austrian has every right to challenge for the ball, but careers into the French goalkeeper and a free-kick is awarded to France. Rather harshly, and despite the fact that he actually reached the ball first, Baumgartner is shown a yellow card. Had the pass from Laimer been better, Baumgartner would have had a golden chance to score. But it was just a yard too far in front of him.
76 min: “France are fairly unique among national teams in having lots of positional interchanging,” emails Kári Tulinius. “Defenders have license to attack, attackers drop deep and switch flanks, and Mbappé even served as a right back for a hot second. I’ve been impressed how Austria have, mostly, not been caught out”.
74 min: Danso, who has been excellent tonight and started his youth career at Reading and MK Dons, marshalls Kolo Muani expertly.
72 min: Kolo Muani is straight into the action after a neat touch from Hernandez, with the PSG man dribbling into Austria’s penalty box before shooting high and wide. I counted three stepovers/lollipops there. Was like a knockoff version of this effort from Balotelli a couple of seasons ago.
This goal by Mario Balotelli has been nominated for the Puskas Award. If you’ve not seen it, you need to. And you won’t stop watching it, either. It’s just that good. pic.twitter.com/Sj1jDM167M
— LUKE (@luketaylortcd) January 12, 2023
70 min: This game is still in the balance. France make two changes: Camavinga for Rabiot and Kolo Muani for Dembele. Straight swaps. Rabiot has played well, but isn’t fully fit.
68 min: Big chances for France! Hernandez has been quiet this half but gets forward here again, getting to the byline and flashing a teasing ball across Austria’s six-yard box. Griezmann is lurking but can’t quite reach the low cross, stretching a la Gazza in ‘96 versus Germany at the back post to no avail.
Paul Gascoigne's 'Golden Goal' miss vs Germany, Euro '96.#150Classic90sMomentspic.twitter.com/UzxmA17um9
— 90s Football (@90sfootball) March 26, 2019
Dembele retrieves the ball, feeds Kounde who rather clumsily shoots at goal from just right of the penalty spot, but Austria block and hack it away.
66 min: Corner for Austria and Arnautovic, now wearing the captain’s armband, is causing mischief in the middle. But it’s a desperately poor set piece from Sabitzer, who doesn’t clear the first man (Griezmann) with his cross.
64 min: Xabi Alonso has made the 30-minute hop from Leverkusen to Düsseldorf tonight.
A two-time EURO winner watching on in Dusseldorf 👀#EURO2024 | #AUTFRA pic.twitter.com/RuC7vaB97M
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) June 17, 2024
62 min: Austria look revitalised by those changes and have a penalty shout, as Sabitzer becomes the meat in a Saliba-Upamecano sandwich. The referee says no penalty and VAR concur. Was more shoulder-to-shoulder than anything.
60 min: Austria make a triple change: Grillitsch for Wimmer, Gregoritsch for Arnautovic and Wober for Trauner. Straight swaps, and smart ones. Save for that cross to Sabitzer, Gregoritsch hasn’t troubled France, and the cautioned Wober has struggled with Mbappé pace.
57 min: Yellow card for Dembele, and a rather harsh one for a challenge just outside France’s box. Sabitzer zings a cross to the near post but Thuram is there to block. Replays show that Saliba had a decent hold on Gregoritsch’s shirt, which wasn’t picked up by the referee or VAR.
Mbappé misses a one-on-one!
55 min: Rabiot hits a rather hopeful ball forward. Mbappé wins a 50-50 duel with Danso, then beats Wober to the ball, and bears down on goal, clean through. He has all the time in the world, taking two touches to set himself but sidefoots an easy finish two yards wide of the goal. Mbappé looks bemused, almost laughing to himself at the miss.
Updated
52 min: Kante, per yesteryear, has been absolutely everywhere for France.
50 min: An important clarification via email from Tom Faure regarding the refereeing decision after that Baumgartner chance/just before France’s goal.
“Just FYI Michael, normally I hate how VAR can’t correct an incorrectly given goal kick (see Albania v Italy) but in this case the corner kick that the linesman and VAR missed was actually whistled offsides”.
I have to admit I missed that. Thought it was a goal kick.
48 min: Griezmann’s bandage has already fallen off. I think he’s still bleeding. But on we go.
46 min: Thirty seconds into the second half, and Wober sends Griezmann flying into the advertisement hoardings. The Frenchman was sprinting at full speed to keep a loose ball in play, and Wober only gave him a slight nudge, which completely unbalanced Griezmann, who went face first into the hoardings. A slightly dazed Griezmann gets up but has a cut above his right eye. He’ll be OK to continue but that was a nasty bump and could have been a lot worse. Wober is on a yellow card, remember, but didn’t do much wrong there.
Peeeeeep! We’re underway again in Düsseldorf.
Oh, and you can spend hours reading this and not get bored.
Half-time reading.
“With all the VAR possibilities, ball sensors and even rotations being tracked I wonder why nobody could be bothered to tell the ref that he was wrong to award a goal kick instead of a corner”, emails Patrick Schwind. “It happened in another match, too, I think yesterday. Especially frustrating since it changed momentum and resulted in a goal for France moments later”.
I agree. Personally I would prefer to throw all of VAR in the bin, but it seems odd that something binary and unequivocal like that corner/goal kick decision can’t be changed in the current climate.
Half-time: Austria 0-1 France
Neither team will be unhappy with their performance, although Austria will rue the nature of France’s goal. I’m still on for my 2-1 prediction to France, I reckon.
44 min: Another chance for Mbappé, who is causing all sorts of problems since moving to the right wing. The new Real Madrid star goes clean through on goal, tries to go around Pentz but stumbles and the Austria keeper does well to smother the ball!
43 min: Deschamps looks like a bundle of nerves in the French dugout as La Marseillaise rings out around the stadium. Huge French support here. Düsseldorf is under a three hour drive from the French border.
41 min: This is a good game. We haven’t had a lorry full of chances, but it’s an intruiging tactical battle. And there are glimpses of real quality. Still thinking about that Sabitzer touch for Baumgartner …
GOAL! Austria 0-1 France (Wober OG 38)
Disaster for Austria. Just two minutes after they could have taken the lead, they fall behind. Mbappé pops up on the right wing, beats Mwene to reach the byline and boots a low-ish cross into the six-yard box. Danso and Wober both go for it, with the latter heading into his own net!
Updated
Huuuuuuge chance for Austria!
36 min: Austria break forward down the left, with Gregoritsch drifting wide. The big striker zings an early cross into the box towards Sabitzer, who cushions the cross beautifully first time into the path of Baumgartner. Time stands still as the Austria looks up to pick his spot, only to see Maignan spring out from his line, and somehow get a boot on Baumgartner’s toe-poke to turn the ball behind. The referee awards a goal kick, but that was a fine save! Baumgartner could have easily dinked a finish or picked the other corner. Alas!
Updated
32 min: It’s been a good battle between Dembele and Mwene on France’s right flank, with both winger and defender winning duels so far. But it’s the Frenchman who gets the better of Mwene here on the byline with the Austrian going into the book for a late slide tackle. A yellow card is a dangerous thing to have when you have Dembele running at you for the rest of the match.
29 min: The game has become bitty, which will suit Austia just fine. France are struggling for fluidity. Thuram hits the deck, with France claiming he had been bodychecked off the ball by Danso, but replays show the big Austria defender simply stood his ground.
27 min: “Ralf Ragnick, the sartorial elegance of your mum’s new boyfriend, hiding that ‘football mensch’ vibes” emails Kev McCreasy. “Like a post anger management Mourinho”.
Just spat out a bit of ginger ale at that. Very underrated drink.
25 min: Much better from Austria.
23 min: After a brief stoppage for an injury to Grillitsch, the Austria schemer is back to his feet to set up an Austrian attack. Mwene is getting forward nicely from left back and he finds Baumgartner, who audaciously beats Dembele with a nifty flick before Kounde and Upamecano come to the rescue.
21 min: “Looks like Mbappe and Thuram are going to take turns holding down the left side, makes sense given their comments on the election this week”, emails Ryan Casey. “Don’t worry I’ve still got my day job”.
I can confirm that Mbappé is now playing on the left wing, and Thuram as the No 9.
19 min: Rabiot breaks two challenges in midfield and feeds Griezmann, who ignores Dembele to his right and shoots straight into an Austrian defender.
17 min: Wober is given a yellow card for a nasty challenge on Dembele, who beat two men before being felled just outside the Austria penalty area. Griezmann floats the free-kick to the back post, where it is just too high for Saliba. Pentz collects.
15 min: Austria are, perhaps not surprisingly, being very physical with Mbappé. Posch and Danso have both been penalised for heavy challenges.
13 min: Hernandez, comfortably the best player on the pitch so far, makes another of those darting runs forward. The Milan man reaches the byline, whips a low cross-shot across the six-yard line but the ball misses both man and post. Nobody there to tap it into an empty net for France.
11 min: Should say that Pentz has made a really good start in Austria’s goal on just his seventh start for his country. Made that save from Mbappé and has calmly claimed a couple of tricky crosses. The 27-year-old plays for Brondby in Denmark.
9 min: Our first big chance, and it falls to Mbappé! Hernandez makes another break, drawing Posch into a challenge and suddenly Mbappé is in behind, cutting in from the left wing. He’s through on goal, albeit from an acute angle and tries his textbook finish to the near post, but Pentz is wise to it and able to tip it around his near post! Great save, although Mbappé may have had more success if he had gone across goal. Thuram was lurking for a potential rebound.
Updated
7 min: France are beginning to dominate the ball, but have yet to create any openings. Theo Hernandez gallivants forward from left back and wins a free kick, but Austria clear.
5 min: “Do you think if France do get a nervy 2-1 win, their fans will have a collective meltdown like England’s did?” asks Robert Shillcock. “A winning start is really all that matters. In fact, maybe not even that — Argentina got beat by Saudi Arabia in their first game of the 2022 World Cup!”
No, but I think Austria are a substantially better side than England’s opponents Serbia, so any win is a good result here for France. And I think England fans should be alarmed by their second-half performance, and Southgate’s defensive tactics, which so famously got us into trouble in the final against Italy three years ago.
A man said Gareth southgate would put his phone on low power mode when the batteries on 99% 😂
— EXPRESSIONS OOZING (@ExpressionsOOZ) June 16, 2024
3 min: Laimer fouls Mbappé for the first foul of the game, and Griezmann whips in a cross, headed away by Austria’s Danso.
2 min: The teams feel each other out. Mbappé is playing through the middle for France, with Thuram on the left, but expect them to swap throughout the match.
Peeeeeeep! And we’re off in Düsseldorf.
“Disappointed Jack Grealish fans might find some solace in Austria fielding the like-monikered Grillitsch today,” emails Peter Oh. “Florian may not have Jack’s calf game or twinkle-toe his way into the opponent’s box, but he does offer sturdy and smart defensive midfield work and occasionally does surprising things like score from his own half as he did for Hoffenheim against Cologne this past season.”
The teams are out, the anthems sung. I can report that La Marseillaise is still a certified banger.
Ten minutes until kick-off. Predictions and any other thoughts welcome to michael.butler@theguardian.com or @michaelbutler18. I’m going to go with a nervy win for France, 2-1.
Should France win this tournament, Didier Deschamps will become the first man to win both the Euros and the World Cup as both a player and a coach. What a ridiculous career.
The atmosphere is building in Düsseldorf.
The match report of Belgium 0-1 Slovakia has landed.
Remarkably, this is William Saliba’s first competitive start for France. Didier Deschamps openly questioned the Arsenal centre-back in March: “He is having a good season, but he also does things that I don’t like so much. For France, he has limited game time, but when he plays, that hasn’t necessarily gone well. The hierarchy doesn’t favour him at the moment, but he is here. With certain players, I make sure to persevere, because it can be confidence or little blockages that can shift.”
Deschamps has persevered and it’s Saliba that has got the nod over Liverpool’s Konaté.
This was the early result today, in case you are catching up: Romania 3-0 Ukraine.
Let’s unpack those teams. Austria should line up in a 4-2-3-1, while France will adopt their normal 4-3-3, with Rabiot and Kante a more defensively-minded pair beside Antoine Griezmann, who rivals Kylian Mbappé as the most important player in Deschamps’ side.
Rabiot has evidently recovered from a knock, while Tchouameni is not 100% fit, although named on the substitutes bench. Interesting that it is Saudi-based Kanté that has been picked to replace Tchouameni for his first start in two years, beating Camavinga and Zaire-Emery to a starting berth. There was some debate as to whether Marcus Thuram could lose his place to Olivier Giroud, but it is the Internazionale man that edges out the veteran.
Updated
The teams!
Austria: Pentz, Posch, Danso, Wober, Mwene, Seiwald, Grillitsch, Laimer, Sabitzer, Baumgartner, Gregoritsch.
Subs: Lindner, Trauner, Arnautovic, Prass, Hedl, Querfeld, Lienhart, Kainz, Schmid, Daniliuc, Seidl, Wimmer, Weimann, Entrup, Grull.
France: Maignan, Kounde, Saliba, Upamecano, Hernandez, Kante, Rabiot, Dembele, Griezmann, Thuram, Mbappe.
Subs: Samba, Pavard, Mendy, Camavinga, Tchouameni, Giroud, Muani, Zaire Emery, Fofana, Coman, Clauss, Areola, Konate, Barcola.
Referee: Jesus Gil Manzano (Spain)
David Alaba might be sidelines with injury but he is with the Austria squad this tournament as a ‘non-playing captain’. Here he is looking rather focused tonight.
Full-time: Belgium 0-1 Slovakia.
A remarkable result! The first big shock of the tournament.
Two goals disallowed for Belgium and Romelu Lukaku, one for offside and one for handball in the build-up. The second looked a little harsh, but correct within the current rules.
Updated
What a year this has been for former Stoke City players. With Joselu scored two late goals against Bayern to send Real Madrid to the Champions League final, with Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting also featuring in the semi-final for the German side. Now at the age of 35, Marko Arnautovic has perhaps a final chance to make his mark for Austria on the international stage. The Internazionale forward is the most-capped and second highest scoring player in the history of the national team but is expected to start on the bench, currently behind Freiberg’s Michael Gregoritsch in the pecking order.
Just 15 minutes to go between Belgium and Slovakia, and it is the latter who are leading 1-0! Join Rob Smyth here for that game’s closing stages.
Preamble
What a game this is, perhaps the most exciting on paper of the tournament so far. France, who have played in all but one major tournament final since 2016, against a resurgent and intriguing Austria side, led by their Ralf Rangnick, their maverick manager who turned down Bayern Munich’s advances to stay in charge of Das Team for this tournament.
This article does a much better job of explaining how Austria have reached Group D, but the short answer is with an excellent qualifying campaign in which they finished just a point behind Belgium, winning six of their eight games.
Rangnick has imposed a flowing style – quick transitions, pressing and counterpressing – that has won over the Austrian players and public and even without their injured talisman David Alaba and midfield dynamo Xaver Schlager, they are a genuine force and threat to the French. Get any sort of result here, and Austria will fancy themselves to get out of this group, which also includes Poland and the Netherlands.
This is how things stand.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Austria | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | France | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Poland | 1 | -1 | 0 |
France are France. Despite an outrageous roster of talent filled with both youth and experience and with surely the best international manager in the world, Didier Deschamps, we are never quite sure what we are going to get. Recent results, such as a 2-0 defeat to Germany and a 0-0 draw with Canada, have meant they are seen as a team lacking fluency while off the pitch, much of the build-up to this game has centred around the players’ political opinions regarding Emmanuel Macron’s shock announcement a week ago to call a snap parliamentary election. Yet, it would not be a surprise
So, plenty to digest. This should be a cracker.
Kick-off: 8pm BST, or 9pm in Düsseldorf.
