For your son’s tournament in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, the Champions League group stages of your game on Football Manager in 2048 or Euro 2024, this is the moment that everyone is waiting for (perhaps even more than some first round matches will say): the draw. That’s good, it takes place this Saturday evening in Hamburg, at the Elbphilharmonie, a magnificent concert hall which overlooks the port of the German city, one of the host cities of the competition.
Placed at the top of the series, thanks in particular to an almost perfect qualifying phase (7 victories in 8 matches), the French team will avoid facing, from the group phase, countries like Spain, Portugal, Belgium or England. But some nice little surprises could come to garnish our start to summer.
Worst draw: France, Türkiye, Netherlands, Italy
In hat 2, the majority of teams seem at the same level. But we would single out Turkey, which not only finished first in its group ahead of Croatia and Wales, but will also benefit from enormous support in Germany, thanks to the enormous Turkish community present there. Then, the Netherlands (hat 3) and Italy (hat 4) are the teams to avoid, even if they have not been very flamboyant in recent years. Italy also qualified at the last minute for this Euro by beating Ukraine in the last match of the group stage, while Oleksandr Zinchenko’s partners complained about a forgotten penalty in their favor.
The best draw: France, Albania, Slovakia, barrage
Obviously, as all the players say all weekend long, “in football, everything is possible”, but we would leave across the Rhine next June with a little more peace of mind if we found Albania and Slovakia in our group. The Albanians may have finished first in their group (ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland), but that should not impress Griezmann’s gang. The same for Slovakia, when we imagine the duel in the Mbappé-Skriniar race. For the barrage operator, you will have to wait a few months to find out the name of the qualified team. It will be played between Wales, Finland, Poland, Estonia on one side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Israel, Iceland on the other and Georgia, Luxembourg, Greece, Kazakhstan. Suffice it to say, not the thunderbolts of war.
The most compatible French team draw: France, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland
Accustomed to continental and international games, France regularly ends up falling against the same teams during the group stages of the Euros or World Cups. We therefore see the Blues ending up with Denmark (as during the 1998, 2002, 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Euro 1984, 1992 and 2000), the Netherlands (Euro 2000, 2008) and Switzerland (World Cup 2006, 2014 , Euro 2016). Come on, we’re going to trust the famous “DD pussy” to bring us a magnificent, and above all accessible, group.