Austriavs.France

Didier Deschamps's men endeavour to end a 24-year stretch without a top European honour for their nation, who last conquered the continent at Euro 2000 and lost to Switzerland in the last 16 three years ago.

France did win the Nations League a few months after their Euro 2020 disappointment, but they lost their grip on the World Cup trophy just over 12 months later with an agonising defeat to Argentina in the 2022 showpiece.

Considered one of - if not the - favourites to go all the way in Germany this summer, France must first navigate their way through a challenging Group D comprising Austria, Poland and the Netherlands, the latter of whom they also faced in qualifying.

Ralf Rangnick's Austria are first up for Les Bleus on Monday night at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf, and Deschamps is expected to have almost every single one of his players available for the opening tie, including Real Madrid's Aurelien Tchouameni.

Tchouameni trains fully before Austria clash

The 24-year-old missed the final few weeks of Real Madrid's campaign with a foot problem, which cruelly robbed him of the chance to play in Los Blancos' 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final.

Tchouameni was not risked for either of France's friendly matches with Luxembourg or Canada earlier this month either, but the ex-Monaco lynchpin has now been seen in full training with the rest of his teammates.

As a result, an appearance against Austria is not totally beyond the realm of possibility, but he will certainly not start the match, and even a cameo off the bench is still considered highly unlikely.

Instead, Deschamps will likely keep Tchouameni in bubble wrap before France's crunch clash with the Netherlands on June 21, four days before they close out Group D against Poland.

Extra caution should be exercised over Tchouameni given that he suffered two stress fractures in the 2023-24 season, where he appeared 38 times for Real Madrid and scored three goals.

Tchouameni's loss is N'Golo Kante's gain... for now

While Tchouameni is expected to become a starter for France in the latter stages of their Euros campaign, his absence from the first XI against Austria spells good news for N'Golo Kante, at least for a short period.

The former Chelsea man, now on the books at Al-Ittihad, saw his international career stall amid his injury-plagued final couple of years in West London, but he managed to stay fit throughout his debut Saudi Pro League season.

Kante is expected to benefit from Tchouameni's issue to start on Monday evening - whether he continues in that role when the Real Madrid man is fit again is another question entirely - while Adrien Rabiot is also poised to join him in the middle, fending off the threat of Eduardo Camavinga and Warren Zaire-Emery.

Further forward, Kylian Mbappe is a nailed-on starter after overcoming a slight knee niggle, while Marcus Thuram is looking likely to start as France's focal point over Olivier Giroud.

Deschamps is also understood to have performed a U-turn on his initial William Saliba selection decision for Euro 2024, after the Arsenal man impressed from the off in their goalless draw with Canada in a warm-up friendly.