Euros resume with new-look star cast

Paris, September 4 

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Euro 2020 qualifying resumes tomorrow with several of the biggest teams such as world champions France sporting a changed look for the new season, in some cases not by choice.

Less than a month into the new European season, France have been particularly hard hit by injuries ahead of home matches against Albania on Saturday and Andorra next Tuesday in Group H. They will be without four members of their 2018 World Cup-winning squad — Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele — as emerging stars Aymeric Laporte and Tanguy Ndombele.

Coach Didier Deschamps blamed football's "crazy schedules", saying he always expects to lose players, but this was exceptional. 

"At one time it is one of them, at another time it is another," Deschamps said. "Now I'm not hiding from you that I have a lot of them at the same time and I could have done without that." 

Group H is one of the tightest, with France, Turkey and Iceland level at the top in the pursuit of one of two qualifying berths. The real test will come in October when France travel to Iceland and then host Turkey, who beat Les Bleus 2-0 in June. 

The heavyweight clash in this batch of games pits Germany against the Netherlands in Hamburg on Friday in Group C. It will be the third meeting of the old rivals in less than a year. The Dutch beat the Germans 3-0 in the Nations League in Amsterdam. This time Germany will be without Leroy Sane, who scored in the last two encounters. Victory would put Germany, who have won all three of their games, nine points clear of the Dutch. 

But there is another perfect team in the group. Surprisingly Northern Ireland, who have won all four of their games, host Germany in Belfast on Monday. — AFP