Oranje draws difficult group including France, Ireland, & Greece for Euro 2024 qualifiers
The Dutch men’s national football team was the first team drawn into a somewhat difficult group for the Euro 2024 qualification tournament. Oranje will take on France, Ireland, Greece, and Gibraltar in the group stage, with the top two teams to take part in the full tournament in Germany.
A total of 53 teams were placed in qualification groups during the draw on Sunday, split up into seven groups of five and three groups of six. The teams will take part in matches from March to November next year. Russia has been banned from the tournament because of the war in Ukraine.
The winner and runner-up from each group will qualify for the tournament along with Germany, who gets an automatic placement as the host country. The remaining three spots will be given to the teams performing the best in the 2022-2023 Nations League tournament who have not qualified for Euro 2024 in another manner.
Oranje’s toughest challenge may come from France, who won their second championship at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But, the French squad had a rough time in the Nations League this year, whereas the Dutch team advanced to the final round with Croatia, Italy, and Spain, set to take place next summer.
Both the French and Dutch teams suffered disappointment during the last European Championship. The Netherlands won Group C with three consecutive victories, only to suffer defeat in the first knock-out stage at the hands of the Czech Republic. France won Group F ahead of Germany, only to be knocked out of the Round of 16 by Switzerland in a penalty shootout.
France is currently fourth in international rankings, according to FIFA, while the Netherlands stands in eighth. They are the top-ranked teams in Group B. Ireland follows in 49th place, with Greece trailing close in 52nd place. Gibraltar is ranked globally in the bottom ten, at 204th place. That puts them second-to-last among all European teams.
The “Group of Death”for the qualification stage appeared to be Group C. The teams there are Italy, England, Ukraine, North Macedonia, and Malta. England currently holds fifth place, and Italy is in sixth, with Ukraine in 27th, North Macedonia in 65th, and Malta in 168th position.
Ronald Koeman will take over as trainer of the Dutch team ahead of the European Championships, after Oranje’s World Cup campaign in Qatar concludes later this year. Louis van Gaal is the current trainer of the Dutch squad.
Euro 2024 will kick off on 14 June 2024 with Germany the host team for the first match. Group stage matches will be played for 12 days in total, followed by the Round of 16 starting on 29 June. Quarter-finals begin on 5 July, and the semi-finals get underway four days later. The 2024 final be held in Berlin on 14 July 2024.
Host cities include Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Dortmund, and Gelsenkirchen.
The tournament will be the first European Championship to be fully organized in Germany since reunification. The country hosted four matches during the 2020 tournament, which was held in 11 countries with the semi-final and final played in London. West Germany hosted the 1998 tournament.
