the hopes carried by their Nice against Serbia

The France U21 team continues its faultless in their qualifying group for Euro U21 (June 9 to July 2, 2023 in Georgia and Romania). Opposed to Serbia in Grenoble, the Bleuets did the job by winning 2-0 thanks to sign a 7th victory in 8 matches (a draw).

To validate their ticket and first place in Group H, Sylvain Ripoll’s players, in the lead with six points ahead of Ukraine, whom they will face in Turkey to end their campaign, will have to win on June 6 (6:30 p.m. ) in Yerevan against Armenia, a nation they had crushed in November (7-0) already at the Stade des Alpes, a ground that suits them well.

Facing the Serbs whom they had beaten in the first leg (3-0), the French, authors of 25 goals without conceding since the draw conceded to the Faroe Islands on November 6, 2021 (1-1), their only hitch, largely dominated the match. And they should have won more, the end result being rather flattering for the Serbs.

Read alsoLes Bleuets “should have been more effective”, recognizes Ripoll

Even if they monopolized the ball with sometimes very good collective actions against an opponent forced to defend, they had to wait until the very end of the first period to finally take a deserved advantage with a goal from Khephren Thuram. The latter, who flew over the midfield with Maxence Caqueret and Eduardo Camavinga, victoriously headed a deep cross delivered from the right wing by Pierre Kalulu (42).

Amine Gouiri brought the score to 2-0 on the hour mark by adjusting goalkeeper Milos Gordic, thus validating a good opening from Camavinga delivered from the center of the field (60). After the changes made by Ripoll in the second half with in particular the exits of Thuram and Gouiri (66), still dangerous in the 63rd, and Camavinga (72), the domination of the French was less pressing.

However, they still obtained very good chances by Mohamed-Ali Cho (79, 80) Sofiane Diop (86), Kouadio Koné (89), Arnaud Kalimuendo (90) and finally Benoît Badiashile with a miraculous save from Gordic (90+ 3) which should have made the gap worse.