Belgium welcome France to Stade Roi Baudouin after both teams made winning starts to their Nations League campaigns. Belgium impressed in Rome, while France began the Zinedine Zidane era with a narrow victory in Turkey.

Belgium impressed in Italy

Mark van Bommel enjoyed the perfect start as Belgium manager with a 2–0 victory against Italy at the Stadio Olimpico.

Mika Godts opened the scoring before Dodi Lukebakio added the second goal after the break. Belgium created several good chances and looked dangerous when they attacked at speed.

Senne Lammens also played an important role in the victory. Belgium are without Thibaut Courtois during the Nations League campaign, but Lammens produced an excellent performance and kept a clean sheet in Rome.

Kevin De Bruyne remains the key player in midfield, while Belgium still have plenty of attacking quality through Lukebakio, Leandro Trossard and Romelu Lukaku. Their performance against Italy showed that they can still compete with the strongest teams in Europe.

France make a winning start under Zidane

France also opened the competition with three points after beating Turkey 1–0 away from home.

Kylian Mbappé scored the only goal of the match and delivered a winning start for new manager Zinedine Zidane. The French captain had struggled with illness earlier in the week, but recovered in time to play and make the difference.

It was not a dominant performance from France, but they controlled large parts of the match and protected their lead. Their squad remains one of the strongest in Europe, with quality in every position and several options available from the bench.

Zidane is still at the beginning of his time as national team manager, but starting with an away victory should give France confidence before another difficult match in Brussels.

France can edge a close match

Belgium showed against Italy that they should not be underestimated. They will have home advantage and enough attacking quality to cause problems for the French defence.

However, France have the stronger squad and more players capable of deciding a close match. Mbappé remains their biggest threat, while the visitors also have the pace and individual quality to punish Belgium if the hosts leave space behind their defence.

Belgium may make this difficult, but France are available at an attractive price for a team with their quality. If the visitors produce a more complete performance than they managed in Turkey, they should have enough to secure another victory.

Tip

France to win