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00:00France are through to the last 16 after emerging unbeaten from the first round
00:04of the Euros but their underpart won all draw with Poland in Dortmund on Tuesday
00:09meant they finished second in Group D behind Austria. Meanwhile England top of
00:14their group as they head into the round of 16 has been drawing sharp criticism
00:18from fans disappointed by a distinctly lacklustre performance. England drawing
00:22nil-nil with Slovenia on Tuesday night in Cologne. Well for more we can bring in
00:26Ruben Slagter sports journalist at Eurosport. Great to have you with us
00:30today Ruben. Let's start with France they're through to the next round of
00:35course. It's hardly though been a display of stellar football. No but to be fair
00:41and put it a bit in perspective this is now the sixth major tournament on the
00:44Didier Deschamps and there has never been a group stage game with him in
00:47command that has been impressive or a stellar performance. He knows when the
00:53team has to perform and that's in the in the final part of the tournament so yeah
00:57he was just it was just important for him to have no injuries especially after
01:01the broken nose of Kylian Mbappé. What is true though is that because of
01:06this draw France is second and now they will be in the harder part of the draw
01:09at least on paper for the next tournament and that will worry him of
01:12course. So your assessment has it that this is very much the game plan of Didier
01:18Deschamps. There's nothing inherently wrong you think with the French team at
01:22this point? Oh there there's much wrong with the French team at the moment in my
01:26opinion. I think they can show a lot more. There's a lot more talent than what
01:30they show on the pitch but this is just the way Didier Deschamps works. If you
01:34like it or not the results are there. He became world champion now six
01:39years ago in almost every tournament he gets into the final the final four with
01:45not really exciting football. Yeah of course he can do a lot more for England
01:49it's the same you were just saying it but in the end the the winner is right.
01:53It has been a very long season his players are probably a bit tired so it's
01:58just now not to spend too much energy and now now the real tournament will
02:01start. So you wouldn't say it's time for a change at the top then even though
02:05Deschamps has been at the helm since 2012? As a football lover I would love to
02:11have another manager for the French national team because probably it will
02:14it will give us more exciting games and in the end football is still played for
02:19us for the fans so yeah that's that's a lot better but it's also about winning
02:24prizes so yeah it's up to the to the French National Federation to to see if
02:29they think that with the Deschamps way it will be still as good. I think the
02:34result of this tournament will be really important for for his future but if you
02:39ask me as a football fan yes of course I would I would love to have another
02:42manager for the French national team. Now England of course drew nil-nil with
02:46Slovenia last night where has the England side's mojo gone? Well it's a bit
02:53the same story in my opinion I think that that Gareth Southgate I don't say
02:57that he is copying the Deschamps way of working but he is also clearly and and
03:02his players say it as well focused on the rest of the tournament. What you can
03:08say though and see is that there is no chemistry between the players right now
03:12there's Trent Alexander-Arnold playing at as a defensive midfield it's not
03:18working out really well it's just it's just not working for now there's a lot
03:22of talent on the pitch but you can see there is there's no there's no
03:25connection and there is no no real team on the pitch and that's that's a shame
03:29when you see how much talent there is. And Gareth Southgate is it has to be
03:34mentioned getting a fair bit of abuse from England fans for the England side's
03:37performance how much is he to blame here do you think? A lot a lot I mean if
03:43you think about the lot of the final three years ago in in in London against
03:48Italy it was their final to lose as well when they were up 1-0 after after two
03:54minutes and they just stopped playing and and the tactics now again are not
03:58are not convincing so yeah you cannot say that that Gareth Southgate is adding
04:02a lot to this England team if you look at just on paper all the all the great
04:06names then England should be the main favourite or at least one of the big
04:10favourites of this tournament again like what I said for Deschamps there's a new
04:13tournament starting if they will make it as far as the final even win it then we
04:18won't say anything anymore but until now you have to say that that his addition
04:24to this team is not not very impressive no. And France and England aside any
04:28teams that you think are really punching above their weight in this tournament?
04:32Well above their weight that's more the smaller teams we will see Georgia for
04:36example today playing I think that nobody expected a lot for them and the
04:40way they played in the first two games was was really exciting but okay they're
04:43not going to win the tournament the the main favourites for now are for what
04:47from what we have seen our Spain and Germany and Portugal I think those three
04:51teams were really really impressive in you know for different reasons Portugal
04:55especially because there's just a lot of good players and they seem very solid
04:59Spain has shown the most exciting football and Germany has has just a
05:04strong team and and you can see with the home advantage I think they could go far
05:08as well the only issue is of course that Spain and Germany normally will meet
05:12each other in the quarter so yeah for them it's not the ideal draw in the in
05:15the second round. And any matches you're particularly excited about as we head
05:19into the final 16? We are just waiting now for what the matches will be but
05:26there will be probably as a Dutchman I have to say that it will be probably an
05:30England versus Netherlands game yeah that's historically always always fun to
05:33watch not because they're the most two most exciting teams here but there's
05:37always things happening when these two meet each other so yeah that's that will
05:41be a one to stand out. And I'll be watching that as well because I have an
05:45English mother and a Dutch father so I wouldn't be forgiven if I didn't watch
05:48that one. Ruben Slagter thank you very much indeed.