Two of the best teams on the continent will face each other as early as the round of 16. France is the favorite going into this game, and whether they will be able to prove that on the court, we will know on July 1st at Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf.
France vs Belgium: Initial situation
Given the odds, France was the second biggest favorite to win the tournament, but the World Cup runner-ups will have a tough opponent in the round of 16. Belgium has been among the top teams in the continent for a while now and has even reached the No. 1 spot in the FIFA rankings at a certain point. Anyway, the Red Devils have yet to reach any major final, and this may be the last chance for this generation of players.
France Stats & Form
France was the favorite going into Group D, but at the end, they finished second with five points, one less than Austria. France started well with a 1-0 win over Austria after Maximilian Wober scored an own goal. Kylian Mbappe suffered a broken nose in that game, which forced manager Didier Deschamps to sit him out in the second game. France and the Netherlands were very cautious in the second matchday, knowing that a draw would go in favor of both teams, and such an approach led to a 0-0 final score. Mbappe was back for the last leg in the group stage against Poland, who was already eliminated, but France played only 1-1, which cost them the top seed in the group.
France has five wins, four draws, and one loss in the last ten games overall. In six of their last seven games, only one team scored, and five of the last seven ended under 2.5 goals in total.
Belgium Stats & Form
Belgium was an absolute favorite in Group E but finished second behind Romania in a very interesting situation with all four teams having four points by their name. The tournament did not start well for Belgium at all, as they lost the opener 1-0 to Slovakia. They allowed an early goal in the opening ten minutes of the match and failed to convert on any of their scoring opportunities by the end of the game. They were with their backs against the wall going into the second game against Romania but responded well under pressure, winning the game by 2-0 with Youri Tielemans and Kevin De Bruyne scoring. In the last matchday, Belgium played against Ukraine, and all they needed to advance was a draw, which eventually happened as the game finished with no goals.
Belgium has five wins, four draws, and one loss in the last ten games. Four of the last five games and seven of the last ten finished under 2.5 goals in total.
France vs Belgium: Head to Head
These two teams have played 18 times before, with France winning seven of those games, Belgium winning five while six games finished in a tie. The last time they played in the semifinal of the Nations League was in 2021, when France won 3-2, and The Blues also won the semifinal of the 2018 World Cup by 1-0. Belgium’s last win was in a friendly game in 2015 when the score was 4-3. Two of their last five head-to-head games finished 0-0.
France vs Belgium Odds
France is a slight favorite going into this game with -110 odds going in their favor while the odds for Belgium’s win are at 250. The odds for a draw are 220.
The total goal margin is set at 2.5 with 130 for over and -165 for under.
Betting tip and prediction: France vs Belgium (01.07.2024)
This is a matchup that would have been exciting enough even for a final, but given the fact that neither team won its group as expected, we will see them go against each other in the round of 16. France was playing as well as they needed to advance, but it is a fact that they had to win on the last Monday against Poland, the team that had no chance to advance. Failing to do so has put them on a different path to the finals, and they are facing a tough opponent this early in the knockout stage. Belgium lost the opener and had to recover, which they eventually did, but they also failed to win in the last match and finished second in their group.
This will be a tough game, with both teams getting the momentum at some point. There are plenty of elite scores on both sides who can literally decide the game with one strike. Anyway, there will not be many goals, so we go with a draw in the regulation.