Aurelién Tchouameni seals Euro 2024 qualification as France beat The Netherlands

France secured their spot at Euro 2024 in Germany next summer with a dominant performance over The Netherlands. It was particularly good news for Real Madrid as it was one of their own, Aurelién Tchouameni, who produced one of the best performances of the night in a 2-1 win in Amsterdam, against a side coached by former Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman.

Tchouameni started in the holding role of the midfield three and continues to be one of the first names on Didier Deschamps’ team sheet. He played a role in the 20th consecutive game for France, starting 19 of those matches. You would have to go back to March 2022 for the last time the French coach left Tchouameni on the bench, which was in fact the only time he has been an unused substitute since his debut in 2021.

With this performance, Tchouameni showed why. It was an all-action display in the middle of the park, registering the highest number of tackles and the highest number of duels won as he continually broke down the Dutch offensive game. Koeman’s decision to mix things up at half-time, replacing Atalanta’s Marten de Roon, was largely influenced by the team’s struggles in the midfield with Tchouameni coming out on top.

Winning four tackles and recovering possession nine times, Tchouameni also picked up a booking with his only foul deep into injury time as France saw out the result following Quilindschy Hartman’s goal which cut the distance produced by Kylian Mbappe’s double.

Coming off the back of his goal from distance against Ireland in the last international break, it seems that his confidence was high and he contributed in attack too. Tchouameni recorded three shots, two of them from outside the penalty box, with two on target and one blocked.

Camavinga benched

Eduardo Camavinga could only watch on from the substitutes’ bench as Didier Deschamps opted not to use the 20-year-old midfielder for the first time since the World Cup semi-final against Morocco.

He had featured in all five of France’s previous Euro 2024 qualifiers, starting on three occasions, but fell victim to Deschamps’ tactical decisions in Amsterdam.

The coach chose to drop Atlético Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann into the midfield three alongside Tchouameni and Adrién Rabiot, with Camavinga’s Real Madrid teammate taking the holding role of the three. With such competition for places, Camavinga now had the rest of this season to stake his claim ahead of the tournament.