“I have a good feeling”: Koeman ahead of clash with France

Ronald Koeman and Nathan Aké faced reporters today and assessed their chances against joint tournament favourites France in their Group D clash tomorrow.

They reflected on recent meetings with Didier Deschamps’ side, discussed points they would need to improve, and more.

What did Ronald Koeman say?

Ronald Koeman oversaw 2-1 and 4-0 losses to France in EURO2024 qualifying, and knows full well the scale of the test his team will face tomorrow.

“We’ve played a lot against France recently. We struggled in certain matches against France so it tells me that they are a very good opponent. they have a lot of experience, they try to keep things compact, and when they win the ball back – as we saw against Austria – they move very quickly up the field.

“They’ve got great individual players, lots of speed, so our answer is to try to play football. In terms of how we build play we’re going to have to be solid, we’re going to have to be patient, we’re going to have to defend well too.”

Did he think they had improved since those qualifying losses? “It’s difficult to say really. We hope that we’ll be able to prove tomorrow that we have improved. It’s different maybe because we’ve prepared well, we’ve had the friendlies, we’ve had more time now to work on our tactics, our system, so it’ll be a better team tomorrow against France.”

The manager was inevitably questioned about his expectations for Kylian Mbappé, whose participation was thrown into question by a broken nose against Austria – but he was relatively unbothered.

“Deschamps will know if Mbappé is going to be playing or not, we’ll just have to wait and see. But France are such a strong team even if Mbappé is not playing.

“Not everything depends on whether Mbappé is there or not.”

Reflecting on last weekend’s tough win against Poland, Koeman said:

“The lesson learned against Poland is that you need to play at a high level for 90 minutes, not just 60 minutes.

“You need to think about where you are in defence, what’s your position, what will happen if I lose the ball here… we have to be careful for our opponents’ speed as well.”

He also gave nothing away about team selection, particularly the question of whether last game’s super-sub Wout Weghorst would earn a spot in the lineup.

“I think it depends. You make your choices depending on how you’re planning the game, what we’re expecting to do during the game.

“We try to get the most out of the squad with every game. We have players who start, and those who finish. You will see tomorrow where Wout [Weghorst] fits into that plan.”

Finally, when about his feelings ahead of the game, he said: “I can’t predict everything! But I have a good feeling. Our preparation’s been good, we’ve got 26 players who are all in good shape. So for us this match is a challenge – this team has been playing together for a long time, they’ve played more international matches than we have. The three points against Poland give us a bit of breathing space, we can be calm now.”

What did Nathan Aké say?

Manchester City’s Nathan Aké also joined Koeman at the press table, and gave his reflections on their recent meetings with tomorrow’s opposition.

“The last 2 games against France, we weren’t good enough with the ball and we suffered a lot from their counter attacks. So we’re going to have to try and keep the ball as well as possible and try to create chances.”

However, he was confident in himself and his colleagues’ abilities. “I think we have a very good backline, not only the players who start but also the players who are on the bench. [They have] lot of experience at top clubs and play at a very high level, so obviously it gives you confidence – in my opinion, overall, the whole team is looking very strong.”

Follow all the action from EURO2024, including Netherlands v France, here on FromTheSpot.