Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of Netherlands vs Austria, a fixture England’s analysis team will no doubt be keeping a close eye on.
Should England secure top spot in their group this evening, they could well face the third-placed team in this group which will surely be Netherlands or Austria. Ronald Koeman’s team are already through to the last 16, but will need to better France’s result against Poland or win by a bigger margin to claim top spot in the group. More likely is that they finish second or third.
When it comes to cohesion and collective endeavour, Austria have been one of the most impressive teams in the tournament. With Ralf Rangnick as coach and the Red Bull connection that links him with a number of their players, they are possibly the closest thing in the competition to a club side. With three points after two games, and their defeat was a narrow one to France, the odds are in Austria’s favour to claim at least one of the four best third-placed qualification spots. They will be assured of third as a minimum if they avoid defeat or lose by a margin of one or two goals. If they lose by three goals or more they will finish third but will not be confirmed in the last 16 today unless Slovenia then lose to England.
Netherlands have one of the strongest back fours in the competition with Denzel Dumfries, Stefan de Vrij, Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Ake. There is a lovely asymmetry there, with Ake the more defensive full-back on the left to allow Dumfries to raid forward on the right. Jerdy Schouten and Tijjani Reijnders, who play for PSV and AC Milan, are not household names but have impressed in midfield.
Much like Austria, the question mark over the Netherlands is whether they have enough firepower and reliable decision-making at the sharp end. They probably need more from Xavi Simons than we have seen in the tournament so far, but Cody Gakpo has looked slick in a wider role than we generally see at Liverpool.