Euro 2024: the Blues' opponent in the round of 16 ? Maximum suspense between Belgium, Ukraine, Slovakia and Romania

Romelu Lukaku, l’arme offensive numéro un des Belges. XinHua – Meng Dingbo

The Blues await their future opponent, Monday July 1 in Düsseldorf. Answer this Wednesday. 

The French team awaits the epilogue of the very undecided Group E, that of Belgium, on Wednesday to know the identity of its opponent in the round of 16 of the Euro -2024, which it will approach without momentum or too much certainty. Belgium, Ukraine, Slovakia or Romania ?

Unprecedented, the four nations have the same number of points before the 3rd and final day of the group stage. The final fight will be played out on one side in Stuttgart between the Red Devils of Kevin De Bruyne and Ukraine carried by its supporters (6 p.m.) and at the same time in Frankfurt between the Slovaks and the Romanians.

The Blues of Kylian Mbappé will be in front of their TV, watching for the identity of the team that will finish second, the same one that will have the difficult task of facing them first. ;July in Düsseldorf in the round of 16. The four teams will seek qualification with, perhaps, in the back of their minds the desire to avoid second place. It leads to a duel against the world vice-champions, and more generally to the toughest part of the table, where Germany, Spain and Portugal are involved.

Lukaku's bad luck

Belgium will do everything to join the already qualified favorites. She has not yet managed to validate her ticket, due to a missed start to the tournament and the bad luck of her center forward Romelu Lukaku. The top Belgian scorer in history (85 in 117 caps) was denied two goals by VAR during the initial defeat against Slovakia (1-0), then a third against Romania ( 2-0).

If he continues like this, I'm sure he'll score a lot of goals

"He’is a very important player for us, he creates a lot of chances, a lot of space, s’ he continues like this, I'm sure he will score a lot of goals", defender Arthur Theate defended him this week. The 31-year-old center forward set a new European record with 14 goals during Euro-2024 qualifying but has not scored again in the final phase of an international competition, Euro or World Cup, since the previous European Championship, in 2021.

The other meeting in Frankfurt opposes two teams striving towards the goal of eighth, which they have only reached once in their history. : Romania in 2000 and Slovakia in 2016. –