Games 29 & 30: Netherlands vs Austria from the Olympiastadion Berlin BBC2 5pm AND France vs Poland from the BVB Stadion Dortmund BBC1 5pm

[Coulthard's Jaw]

Possible line-ups

Netherlands: Verbruggen; Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Aké; Schouten, Simons, Reijnders; Frimpong, Depay, Gakpo
Misses next match if booked: Schouten, Veerman

Austria: Pentz; Posch, Danso, Lienhart, Mwene; Seiwald, Laimer; Wimmer, Baumgartner, Sabitzer; Gregoritsch
Misses next match if booked: Arnautović, Baumgartner, Danso, Laimer, Mwene, Wimmer, Wöber

The Netherlands are backed by the Opta supercomputer for victory in Berlin, winning a convincing 43.8% of 10,000 pre-match simulations for Tuesday's meeting. Austria were victorious in 28.2% of the same data-led sims, while the draw – which will likely still be enough for Rangnick's men – was forecast in 28.0%.

Gabby Logan presents, with analysis from James McFadden Thomas Hitzlsperger and Ashley Williams, and commentary by Jonathan Pearce

Possible line-ups

France: Maignan; Koundé, Saliba, Upamecano, Hernandez; Dembélé, Kanté, Tchouaméni, Rabiot; Griezmann, Thuram
Misses next match if booked: Dembélé, Mbappé

Poland: Skorupski; Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior; Frankowski, Slisz, Moder, Zieliński, Zalewski; Urbański, Lewandowski
Misses next match if booked: Lewandowski, Moder, Slisz, Szczęsny

The Opta supercomputer makes France heavy favourites, with Les Bleus winning 70.3% of pre-match simulations.

Gary Lineker presents with analysis from Alan Shearer, Frank Lampard and Micah Richards, and commentary by Steve Bower

Not much to play for here apart from who finishes 1-2-3

 

Edited June 25 by Coulthard's Jaw

[GunmaN1905]

Austria playing both matches simultaneously.

Will be interesting to see if Rangnick mixes it up or sends the strongest team to one game.

Edited June 25 by GunmaN1905

[Rob1981]

Not sure I can remember a final round of matches with so little riding on them.

France are through.  Netherlands are through.  Austria are through unless they somehow lose by five goals

In different circumstances, we might get a good tussle to decide who comes out top of the group.  Except from this group you only have to play a group runner-up anyway.  Doesn't really matter whether you are 1st or 2nd.  And if Austria can move up from 3rd they MIGHT avoid England or Spain... but there is a decent chance that they could finish 3rd and still only have to play Romania or Slovakia or Ukraine.

Even the lads from Hungary and Croatia that are sweating on their third place finishes in the other groups... there are no combinations of results that can definitely qualify OR definitely eliminate either of them.  That can only happen when the Group C games start later on tonight.

I would give these a swerve to be honest.

Go and get ready for the England game.  Crack a couple of beers open and spend the two hours listening to Vindaloo on repeat.

Edited June 25 by Rob1981

[Coulthard's Jaw]

37 minutes ago, Rob1981 said:

 

I would give these a swerve to be honest.

Go and get ready for the England game.  Crack a couple of beers open and spend the two hours listening to Vindaloo on repeat.

Look I'm leaving work early to get home to watch these and you can't stop me

[The_jagster]

I'd go for a walk but it's humid and horrible (and I have sunburn from yesterday despite having no direct sun on me all day!)

Football plus internet distractions it is

[Barry Cartman]

My son's football training is 5:30-6:30, but hoping to get to the pub later 

Edited June 25 by Barry Cartman

[CFuller]

Austria play some good stuff under Rangnick, but I've got a bad feeling they're going to crumble today. The Netherlands to win 3-0, but both teams to go through regardless.

France will smash Austria reserves Poland to pieces.

[Gizmo7]

Netherlands XI: Verbruggen; Geertruida, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Aké; Schouten, Reijnders, Veerman; Malen, Gakpo,  Memphis.

Austria XI: Pentz; Posch, Lienhart, Wöber, Prass; Seiwald, Grillitsch; Wimmer, Sabitzer, Schmid; Arnautović.

[Gizmo7]

France XI: Maignan; Koundé, Upamecano, Saliba, Hernández; Tchouaméni, Kanté, Rabiot; Dembélé, Barcola, Mbappé.

Poland XI: Skorupski; Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior; Frankowski, Szymański, Moder, Zieliński, Zalewski; Lewandowski, Urbański.

[GunmaN1905]

 

[Rob1981]

Netherlands win + France draw is probably the best outcome for England?  Group finishes - 1) Netherlands, 2) France, 3) Austria

We avoid France and Netherlands in the R16, and if we win the group then France, Germany, Spain and Portugal are all in the other half of the draw.

@GunmaN1905 will explode if we get to another final without having to play anyone good.

[Freakiie]

I can totally see France not caring about this game and not ending first, making one half of the knockout stages way harder than the other side.

[GunmaN1905]

1 minute ago, Rob1981 said:

 

@GunmaN1905 will explode if we get to another final without having to play anyone good.

You're not getting past QF, so it doesn't matter.

[av3ry]

I would like for Poland to get something in a minute so every team has at least 1 point. Wonder if that has ever happened before.

[CFuller]

BBC commentary teams:

France vs Poland - Steve Bower & Dion "Stairs leading to the bedroom" Dublin.

Netherlands vs Austria - Jonathan Pearce. That's all the ICDB says. I hope he's not doing it all by himself.

Edited June 25 by CFuller

[av3ry]

"Budimir's a big unit. 6'3, about as wide as he is tall. Looks like wardrobe"
"I was watching the Netherlands France game with the Dutch and the bloke behind was about 19 feet tall, drank about 19 beers and half of them landed on my back"
"Fagioli"

Some of the stuff Johnathon Pearce came out with last night. Would make a great duo with Roy Keane as Keane would look at him like he has two heads half the time.

[SouthCoastRed]

Oh Christ not Pearce again 

[CFuller]

Gabby says that the Dutch have nicked "Sweet Caroline" from England.

Yeah, but England nicked it from Northern Ireland first...

 

Edited June 25 by CFuller

[av3ry]

Surprised France didn't rest Mbappe considering they are through already and he has that broken nose.

[Rob1981]

Tuned in to France-Poland because @CFuller promised Dion Dublin, instead it's Martin Keown

Switching to the other game.

[CFuller]

Braving Pearce and Danny Murphy to watch the Dutch-Austrian game.

Positive start from the red bulls.

[GunmaN1905]

2 minutes ago, av3ry said:

Surprised France didn't rest Mbappe considering they are through already and he has that broken nose.

They want to win the group.

If they don't, they go on the same side of the draw with Portugal, Spain and Germany.

They'd rather play Belgium, England andd Italy.

Edited June 25 by GunmaN1905

[CFuller]

Just now, Rob1981 said:

Tuned in to France-Poland because @CFuller promised Dion Dublin, instead it's Martin Keown

Switching to the other game.

Don't blame me, blame the Internet Commentator Database. 

[CFuller]

As someone who was born in 1990, I love being reminded that the 1990 World Cup was 34 years ago, Jonathan.

[Darius1998]

OG again.

[CFuller]

OWN GOAL STRIKES AGAIN! 1-0 Austria.

 

Well... I did predict that Malen would score first. 

[Rob1981]

AUSTRIA TOP OF THE GROUP

[DJ]

OG tally +1 ^^

[Freakiie]

It's back! Been a couple of games without OG, but it's still alive and kicking.

[Orzelek]

1-0 Austria, own goal by Malen 

[GunmaN1905]

Quality finish.

[SouthCoastRed]

2 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Quality finish.

Buried it tbh

[georginho_juventusygr]

Oooooooo.

[Darius1998]

Not often you see someone leave the ball behind while trying to dribble.

[GunmaN1905]

Why is Lewandowski embarrassing himself like this at his age?

[DJ]

Oof, if Maignan puts that elbow 20 cm higher the ref would have to think about a red card

[Darius1998]

Took just 19 mins for the Austrian fans to get the oles out.

[Bliss Seeker]

Still don't understand Dembele. End product is always terrible. Everytime. 

[GunmaN1905]

2 minutes ago, Bliss Seeker said:

Still don't understand Dembele. End product is always terrible. Everytime. 

To have a terrible end product, you need to be able to create an opportunity for that end product. He's good at that.

Also had that great run for Theo's chance.

Very flawed player, but works well enough in his role.

[Darius1998]

Malen.

Not as clinical as he is against his team.

[Orzelek]

Malen better at finishing at his own goal  

Edited June 25 by Orzelek

[DJ]

Malen ffs

[Freakiie]

Malen back to his regular finishing.

[SouthCoastRed]

Fox in the wrong box

[CFuller]

No, no, no, BBC. I'm not having that. The Netherlands aren't playing Australia. 

[The_jagster]

31 minutes ago, CFuller said:

Gabby says that the Dutch have nicked "Sweet Caroline" from England.

Yeah, but England nicked it from Northern Ireland first...

 

Which is in turn stolen from US baseball

[Bliss Seeker]

1 minute ago, CFuller said:

No, no, no, BBC. I'm not having that. The Netherlands aren't playing Australia. 

 

[DJ]

Wimmer is lucky it's only yellow. Ouch.

[DJ]

Ballsy move from Koeman. Veerman off already.

[Freakiie]

To be honest this was kinda expected. Not sure why Koeman even started Veerman in a match where you know the tempo will be incredibly high, he just isn't suited for that.

Edited June 25 by Freakiie