UEFA Euro 2024 Group D will get underway on Sunday with Poland vs. Netherlands ahead of Monday's meeting between pre-tournament favorites France and Austria. The Polish and the Dutch will meet in Hamburg to get things underway in a group which although is expected to go with form and see the French and Oranje advancing as the top two, could cause issues for one or both of those European giants.
Ronald Koeman's side will be keen to make a fast start to put some early pressure on Les Bleus but Netherlands' hopes of beating Les Bleus to top spot have taken a double hit with Frenkie de Jong and Teun Koopmeiners rules out injured on the eve of the tournament on top of Marten de Roon and Jurrien Timber's absences.
Michal Probierz's Eagles will hope to start with an encouraging result despite losing talisman Robert Lewandowski to injury for at least this opening game and possibly beyond that with the Polish medical staff "doing everything" to have the Barcelona man fit beyond that. Poland will hope to possibly sneak a point with a view to creeping into a top two spot over the three games in Group D, but that would complicate things severely.
Here's our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Sunday, June 16 | Time: 9 a.m. ET
- Location: Volksparkstadion -- Hamburg, Germany
- TV: FS1 | Stream: Fubo (try for free)
- Odds: Poland +480; Draw +300; Netherlands -167
Group D
One of this Euro's most attractive groups features two powerhouses of European soccer in France and Netherlands. Two of world soccer's leading talent producers have been vying for top five status in the UEFA coefficient for the past few years with Ligue 1 pulling clear of the Eredivisie this past season. The French and the Dutch face two tricky sides, though, with Ralf Rangnick's Austria and a Poland side with a few quality pieces despite their general inability to translate that appearance on paper into on-field results. Almost everyone will expect Les Bleus and Oranje to advance as the top two here, but which potential order is yet to be decided and both will know that they cannot afford to slip up against either the Austrians nor the Poles.
Team news
Poland: Arkadiusz Milik's goal threat will be a miss -- especially with Lewandowski now out here -- while Karol Linetty has fallen out of favor along with Tomasz Kedziora and Matty Cash. Lewandowski will, of course, captain the side when fit and is joined by regular stalwarts Wojciech Szczesny, Kamil Grosicki and Piotr Zielinksi who are all closing on the 100-cap mark which Lewandowski has long since surpassed. However, the Barca man is confirmed to be out for this one so expect to see Krzysztof Piatek more prominently. Also, only three of the players picked by Probierz ply their trade in their home country.
Possible Poland XI: Szczesny; Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior; Frankowski, Piotrowski, Slisz, Zielinski, Zalewski; Swiderski, Piatek.
Netherlands: The big news for Koeman ahead of this one are the losses of both Frenkie de Jong and Teun Koopmeiners to injury in the midfield while Marten de Roon is also hurt and Jurrien Timber has been a long-term absentee from any type of action. Bologna's Joshua Zirkzee is also out despite looking superb at club level in Serie A but is not injured like AFC Ajax's Steven Berghuis who is not far off of the 50-cap mark. Sven Botman is a long-term absentee through injury surgery so still is yet to feature for Oranje at senior level.
Possible Netherlands XI: Verbruggen; Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Ake; Reijnders, Schouten, Veerman; Simon, Depay, Gakpo.
Prediction
Although this one is somewhat shorn of star power now with no De Jong or Lewandowski, it should still be a quality encounter with the Dutch edging their Polish counterparts by a goal or so. Pick: Poland 1, Netherlands 2.