A good note to conclude the year 2024. Sunday evening, at San Siro, the French football team completed its Nations League group stage in first place by winning in Italy after a match started (3-1).
Already qualified for the quarter-finals before the match, the Blues had to win by at least two goals to take the lead in the group and ensure a more lenient draw for the rest of the competition. Objective achieved, since Didier Deschamps’ men have earned the right to avoid the three other group winners (Germany, Spain, Portugal).
Rather than these three great footballing nations, the Tricolores will face a second group. They will not be able to fall back on Italy. Three options are on the table before the draw scheduled for this Friday, November 22, at 12 p.m., in Nyon (Switzerland): the Netherlands, Croatia and Denmark. Opponents that France knows well having faced them in the recent past.
An air of deja vu
Already opposed to the Dutch during the Euro qualifiers (2 victories, 4-0 then 2-1), the Blues found them in the group stage of the European Championship in a meeting which resulted in a draw and virgin (0-0) in Leipzig, on June 21. These two teams have gotten into the habit of not leaving each other’s side for several months.
Croatia is also one of the regular opponents of the France team which, four years after the coronation in the final of the 2018 World Cup, had mishandled Kylian Mbappé’s partners, held in check there (1-1) before to lose at the Stade de France (0-1) in the Nations League group. Despite the older age of its star Luka Modric, since then, the Croatian team has remained formidable. In group 1, she finished behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, her opponent last Monday (1-1).
Also, the DD gang knows Denmark perfectly, which it had tamed in the 2022 World Cup group stage in Qatar (2-1). Runner-up to La Roja in Group 3, this same team faced the Blues in the Nations League two years ago and scored two wins (2-0 then 2-1). They will therefore have to be taken seriously if the draw reserves a new rematch between these two selections.
The semi-finals also known
Scheduled to be played on March 20 and 23, 2025, the quarter-finals will be played in the form of a two-way clash. As in the Champions League or the Europa League, the away goal rule no longer applies and in the event of a tie, the two teams will play overtime. Having finished leader of its group, the French team will travel to the first leg before hosting three days later.
Note that the draw for the semi-finals (June 4 and 5) will be made immediately after the draw for the quarter-finals, which will allow the Blues to know the path that could lead them to the Nations League title.
The presence of the French team in the quarter-finals also ensures that it will not begin qualifying for the 2026 World Cup before June. And if she reached the Final Four, she would be placed in a group of four and would only enter the competition in September 2025.
During the World Cup qualifying draw, organized on December 13 in Zurich, France (world number 2) will be guaranteed to be in pot 1, which will prevent it from facing the eleven other highest-ranked teams in the rankings. FIFA.
