(Football news) Having seen their hopes of consecutive UEFA Nations League titles crash, France resume League A duties with Austria. Les Bleus are facing the prospect of a devastating relegation to League B, while their visitors are sitting in third place with four points. Not even the goalscoring brilliance of Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappe could prevent France going winless throughout all of June’s Nation Leagues fixtures as Didier Deschamps witnessed his side go to the bottom of the standings in their Nations League group.
France endured a five-game winless streak recently in 2021 and are now at risk of suffering three consecutive home defeats which would be concerning for the Le Blues as the calls for Zinedine Zidane to displace Deschamps in the Bleus hot seat after Qatar is increasing. Victory for Austria would officially relegate France to League B, but Ralf Rangnick's side are not safe from the drop just yet as they are also going through a winless streak in their final three Nations League games back in June. After opening the 2022-23 season with an eye-catching 3-0 success over Croatia, Austria took just one point from the next nine games and succumbed to 2-0 defeat to Denmark last time out.
France possible starting lineup:
Maignan; Pavard, Kounde, Varane, Mendy; Guendouzi, Tchouameni, Camavinga; Griezmann; Mbappe, Giroud
Austria possible starting lineup:
Lindner; Lainer, Trauner, Lienhart, Alaba; Sabitzer, Schlager, Seiwald; Baumgartner; Arnautovic, Gregoritsch
Netherlands will move one step closer to booking their place in the UEFA Nations League semi-finals as they are going to face Poland in their penultimate League A Group 4 match. While the hosts have won only four of their last 10 home matches, the Oranje are unbeaten in each of their last seven away matches. Czeslaw Michniewicz, has been in charge of the national team since January and he sees his side sitting third in the group with four points from as many matches, but with Belgium and the Netherlands already on six points their chances of finishing at the summit are extremely slim.
Netherlands are currently enjoying a 13-game unbeaten run, which dates back to June last year when they lost 2-0 to Czech Republic in the knockout phases of Euro 2020. Van Gaal and co will be confident of extending their run and booking their place in the last four of the Nations League. They are subsequently also unbeaten in their last 10 encounters against Poland, including six victories and four draws. The last defeat against Poland was back in May 1979 when they lost 2-0 away from home in a Euro qualifier.
Poland possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Bereszynski, Bednarek, Kiwior, Reca; Krychowiak, Linetty; Frankowski, Zielinski, Zalewski; Lewandowski
Netherlands possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; De Ligt, Van Dijk, De Vrij; Dumfries, Berghuis, Koopmeiners, F. de Jong, Malacia; Gakpo, Memphis
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