Francevs.Luxembourg

Didier Deschamps's men will also test their mettle against Canada before dreams of Euro 2024 glory take precedence, while their visitors are instead looking towards their next Nations League campaign.

Match preview

Now the only living man to boast World Cup honours as both a player and manager - following the deaths of Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer earlier this year - Deschamps has some Qatari wrongs to right in a Euros campaign where his men are considered one of the heavy favourites.

One-and-a-half years on from Argentinian penalty heartache, France head to Germany on the back of a near-impeccable qualifying campaign, in which they accumulated 22 points from 24 on offer and achieved the biggest win in their history with a 14-0 destruction of Gibraltar.

Les Bleus' reward is an intriguing section with the Netherlands, Poland and an in-form Austria as they seek to end 24 years of hurt on the European stage, having not conquered the continent since 2000, 21 years before their humbling last-16 exit at Euro 2020.

Preparations for this year's gathering did not start swimmingly in March, where Germany earned their second friendly success over Les Bleus in a matter of months, and even though Deschamps's side responded against Chile, that 3-2 success was hardly a whitewash.

Such indiscretions will be quickly forgiven if Deschamps leads his nation to Euro 2024 glory in mid-July, though, and not since 2013 have Les Bleus lost back-to-back home friendlies, leaving Luxembourg with the steepest of hills to climb at Metz's home ground.

While France have been major tournament stalwarts for decades, Luxembourg are yet to earn their World Cup or Euros baptism and will also be watching this summer's continental affairs from the comfort of their own sofas, despite a praiseworthy effort in qualifying Group J.

The Red Lions prevailed in half of their fixtures and drew another two to finish with 17 points to their name, and even though their exploits were only good enough for third behind perfect Portugal and 22-point Slovakia, their Nations League performance paved the way for a playoff appearance.

However, the Luxembourg dream was quickly dashed in a 2-0 loss to Georgia in their semi-final tie in March, but their green shoots of recovery were present in a 2-1 friendly win over Kazakhstan just five days later, another sign of their meteoric rise.

Two daunting June friendlies against France and Belgium will serve as excellent tests of their recent progression, before Luc Holtz's men gear up for another promotion push in the third tier of the Nations League, tackling Northern Ireland, Belarus and Bulgaria in League C.

While 16 of Luxembourg's 18 previous matches against France have unsurprisingly ended in defeat, one of the two instances in which they did not come up short came in their most recent contest, a goalless draw during 2018 World Cup qualifying to end a 14-match losing sequence.

France friendly form:

L

W

France form (all competitions):

W

W

W

D

L

W

Luxembourg friendly form:

W

Luxembourg form (all competitions):

D

L

W

W

L

W

Team News

While there were few shocks sprung in Deschamps's Euro 2024 squad selection, a recall for 2018 World Cup-winning midfielder N'Golo Kante was certainly among them; the 33-year-old returns to Bleus duty on the back of a productive and largely injury-free campaign with Al-Ittihad.

Tricky Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola is the only uncapped player in Deschamps's ranks, but thoughts will be spared for his teammate Lucas Hernandez, who saw his World Cup 2022 campaign curtailed by a serious knee injury and will not play at Euro 2024 owing to a similar problem.

Real Madrid duo Ferland Mendy and Eduardo Camavinga should be given more time to recover from their Champions League final exploits, and even though fellow Blancos man Aurelien Tchouameni missed the win over Borussia Dortmund with a foot injury, he has affirmed that he will be fine for the Euros.

Meanwhile, long-serving Luxembourg boss Holtz will not have midfield stalwart Leandro Barreiro at his disposal this month, but the Red and Whites will otherwise be taking the majority of their recognisable names to France.

Among them is 30-year-old midfielder Sebastien Thill - who memorably scored a stunner against Real Madrid for Sheriff Tiraspol in a 2021 Champions League match - and winger Gerson Rodrigues, Luxembourg's all-time top scorer with 21 goals to his name.

Defender Laurent Jans - who plays in the German third tier - captains the visitors, and should he make an appearance at the Stade Saint-Symphorien, he will overtake fellow 102-cap man Mario Mutsch and become his nation's highest male appearance maker of all time.

France possible starting lineup:

Maignan; Kounde, Pavard, Upamecano, T. Hernandez; Zaire-Emery, Rabiot; Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe; Giroud

Luxembourg possible starting lineup:

Moris; Bohnert, Chanot, Mahmutovic, Jans; Sinani, S. Thill, Olesen, Martins Pereira, Dardari; Rodrigues

We say: France 3-0 Luxembourg

As admirable as Luxembourg's exploits have been over the past year, Holtz's men are still a ways off giving the big boys like France a good run for their money.

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