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One-and-a-half years on from Argentinian penalty heartache, France head to Germany on the back of a near-impeccable qualifying campaign, in which they accumulated 22 points from 24 on offer and achieved the biggest win in their history with a 14-0 destruction of Gibraltar.
Les Bleus’ reward is an intriguing section with the Netherlands, Poland and an in-form Austria as they seek to end 24 years of hurt on the European stage, having not conquered the continent since 2000, 21 years before their humbling last-16 exit at Euro 2020.
Preparations for this year’s gathering did not start swimmingly in March, where Germany earned their second friendly success over Les Bleus in a matter of months, and even though Deschamps’s side responded against Chile, that 3-2 success was hardly a whitewash.
Such indiscretions will be quickly forgiven if Deschamps leads his nation to Euro 2024 glory in mid-July, though, and not since 2013 have Les Bleus lost back-to-back home friendlies, leaving Luxembourg with the steepest of hills to climb at Metz’s home ground.
While France have been major tournament stalwarts for decades, Luxembourg are yet to earn their World Cup or Euros baptism and will also be watching this summer’s continental affairs from the comfort of their own sofas, despite a praiseworthy effort in qualifying Group J.
The Red Lions prevailed in half of their fixtures and drew another two to finish with 17 points to their name, and even though their exploits were only good enough for third behind perfect Portugal and 22-point Slovakia, their Nations League performance paved the way for a playoff appearance.
However, the Luxembourg dream was quickly dashed in a 2-0 loss to Georgia in their semi-final tie in March, but their green shoots of recovery were present in a 2-1 friendly win over Kazakhstan just five days later, another sign of their meteoric rise.
While 16 of Luxembourg’s 18 previous matches against France have unsurprisingly ended in defeat, one of the two instances in which they did not come up short came in their most recent contest, a goalless draw during 2018 World Cup qualifying to end a 14-match losing sequence.
