France, Oranje scoreless after entertaining first half
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With a frenetic pace for most of the first 45 minutes, France and the Netherlands are scoreless at the half in an entertaining Group D encounter from Leipzig at UEFA Euro 2024.
France will win the group with a victory.
Les Bleus made one change to the team that beat Austria 1-0 on Matchday 1 with Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni coming into the starting XI in place of Kylian Mbappé, who broke his nose in the win.
Both teams hit the gas almost from the opening whistle.
Jeremie Frimpong gave France a scare in the opening minute.
Breaking down the left past Theo Hernandez, the Bayer Leverkusen left-back raced into the box and sent in a shot on goal that Mike Maignan did well to stop.
Moments later, Bart Verbruggen was called into action in the Oranje goal. After an Adrien Rabiot run down the right, Antoine Griezmann took a pop from distance with the Brighton keeper forcing the ball over the bar.
In the eighth, Memphis Depay wanted a penalty from referee Anthony Taylor when he was muscled off of the ball by William Saliba. None was coming.
Rabiot should have scored in the 14th. Played in alone, the Juventus midfielder attempted to square for Griezmann instead of shooting and the chance went for naught. In the aftermath, Griezmann fired over from close range.
Right back the other way, Cody Gakpo did well to make himself some room before forcing Maignan into another nice save.
In the 25th, a dangerous-looking Oranje move ended in a goal kick when Gakpo misplaced his pass for a clearly disappointed Memphis at the far post.
Not long after, Marcus Thuram beat the offside trap and took a fine feed from Jules Koundé to close in on Verbruggen where he proceeded to blast over the bar in the 28th. Replays showed that Thuram might have been expecting an offside flag.
After a good spell for France late in the half, Griezmann sent a tame effort at Verbruggen following a nice ball in from Rabiot.
In Group D's other action on Friday, Austria defeated Poland 3-1 in Berlin.