Thursday World Cup Qualifier Preview and Odds – France vs Netherlands

August 31, 2017 19:45pm

Stade de France

Recent form (All competitions)

France: WLWLWD

Netherlands: WWWLLW

France will look to get their Group A World Cup qualifying campaign back on track when they face the Netherlands in Saint-Denis on Thursday night.

Despite having a wealth of talent in their squad, they have fallen into second place on goal difference behind current group leaders Sweden who beat them 2-1 in their last competitive encounter. A defeat against the Netherlands on Thursday could see them drop to third in the group

The French made it to the final of last summer’s European Championships but have already dropped five points from six games in this campaign – a poor showing by their own lofty standards. While it is inconceivable that they will not make it to Russia, further dropped points would certainly set the nerves jangling amongst fans of Les Bleus.

They warmed up for this match with a 3-2 friendly win over England in June and should feel confident going into this clash against a team that failed to make to to last summer’s showpiece event.

Netherlands have made some improvement since their disastrous Euro qualifying campaign but they still face the real prospect of missing out on a second consecutive major tournament should they lose to France on Thursday.

The fact that Coach Dick Advocaat has called up veteran Fenerbahce striker Robin van Persie shows just how desperate the Dutch are this stage of proceedings. They have already lost twice in this campaign and are currently sat third in the table. A win on Thursday could reignite their campaign, while defeat could leave them with too much to do.

A recent run of two friendly wins over Morocco and Ivory Coast, and a 5-0 competitive thrashing of Luxembourg would have given them a boost after the disappointment of defeats to Italy and Bulgaria.

Prediction

With two forward-thinking teams on the pitch, goals should be expected. As a result the Over 2.5 bet looks good value at around Evens. Combine this with a home win and a price of 13/8 can be achieved via the Betfair Exchange.

You can back France/Over2.5 Goals at 13/8 with Betfair.