France v Netherlands Betting Tips: Stade de France set for goals on Thursday night

Aug 29 2017
Aug 29 2017
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France and Holland meet each other in World Cup Qualifying for the second time on Thursday night having previously faced off in Amsterdam back in October. When the teams previously met in that reverse fixture, it was the French who came out on top thanks to a fine strike from midfielder Paul Pogba. Dick Advocaat’s men will be looking to return the favour and secure victory on foreign soil in this match. As things currently stand in Group A, neither France nor Netherlands are leading the way. Sweden currently top the group on 13 points with France behind on goal difference only; Holland sit three points back in 3rd. With only top spot being guaranteed a place at next summer’s finals in Russia, this is a must win game for both of these two sides.

Having beating the Dutch away from home, and having generally fared better so far during qualifying , it’s not exactly a surprise to see the French being so well backed ahead of this fixture, although they do seem a tad short at 4/7. For all the visitors’ problems in recent times, they’re still a useful outfit and come here off the back of two good wins, whereas France tasted defeat in their most recent qualifying match. At the prices, the bet that does stand out is ‘Over 2.5 Goals’. Neither of these two are strangers to high-scoring encounters and so, with the array of attacking quality likely to be on display, the goals are fancied to arrive on Thursday evening.

As far as scoring goes, France come into this match with a very pleasing record, particularly on their own patch. Not only have the French scored in all but one of their six matches during this qualification campaign, notching a total of 11 goals, but they’ve also scored in 100% of their matches in front of a home crowd, scoring a total of six. Interestingly, both of their home matches in qualifying so far have seen ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ land, as have four of their six overall. Didier Deschamps’ side has untold quality in attack and, with the likes of Antione Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembélé in their forward line, they ought to fancy their chances of causing the Dutch a lot of trouble in this match. However, from a defensive point of view, they’ve not exactly been up to scratch in recent matches and so you’d struggle to be confident about their chances in that respect. Conceding twice against England in a friendly doesn’t bode well, nor does the two goals, and several other chances, that they conceded against Sweden in their last qualifying match. Quite simply, there’s a lot to like about this France side going forward, but from a defensive point viewpoint they’re far from the finished article.

In all honesty, the visitors don’t possess the same level of attacking quality as the French, but that’s not to say that they’re without forward strength. Advocaat’s side are certainly capable of scoring goals – they’ve found the net on no less than 13 occasions during qualifying so far – and should fancy their chances of doing so here, especially having seen France concede twice in both of their last two fixtures. During this campaign, for all they are currently Group A’s top-scorers, the problem for the Dutch has been very much a defensive one. Thursday’s visiting team have kept just two clean sheets so far, one which came against minnows Luxembourg, and have so far been unable to shutout any of their opponents on the road.

Despite just the one goal going in when these two met back at start of the campaign, both created numerous chances and so, on another night, the net would’ve undoubtedly rippled more than once. The pair have seen ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ land in eight of their last ten combined and, with both in need of a win, a fast-paced, attacking encounter is expected at Stade de France. A glut of goals is indeed fancied in this fixture and so backing the aforementioned ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ is definitely the way to go.

More World Cup Qualifying tips can be found here.

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