France, however, had made a good start. By opening the scoring early in the game (19th), the Bleuets thought they had done the hardest part. But Ukraine reacted well, scoring three times to eliminate Sylvain Ripoll’s men on Sunday (3-1) and join Spain in the semi-finals of Euro Espoirs.
The Lyonnais Bradley Barcola, untenable on the right as on the left, constituted a real torture at the start of the meeting for the Ukrainian defense, by his speed and his quality of percussion. It was he who offered the opener to his Lyon side Rayan Cherki (19th). Served by Enzo Le Fée in the meantime, Barcola, from a center back, managed to find his number 10. On his control, Cherki mystified his defender before concluding with the left foot.
The two Lyonnais, who had first come up against the Ukrainian goalkeeper, Anatoliy Troubine (6th), allowed the Bleuets to open the scoring. But not everything went as planned for the young French, who nevertheless had good chances in the first act (25th, 27th).
After a rush from Mykhailo Moudrik, Ukraine obtained a penalty following a foul by Pierre Kalulu on the Chelsea player (30th). Georgiy Soudakov transformed him, taking Lucas Chevalier (32nd) on the wrong foot, before doubling the bet, bypassing the Lille goalkeeper, after a sharp call in the heart of the French defense, where neither Lukeba, nor Nkounkou, nor Thuram , had followed him. The Ukrainian striker scored his third goal of the tournament.
Les Bleuets stumbled on a well-organized low block from Ukraine
Frustrated, but not resigned, the Blueberries went back on the attack. It took almost nothing for Barcola to equalize, but his curling shot from the right, at the entrance to the Ukrainian area, came crashing into the post of Troubin, which had remained unmoved ( 38th).
Back from the locker room, the Bleuets proved to be more conquering, managing to keep the ball and recovering it higher and higher. But the Ukrainians, in a low block, very compact, held on and French opportunities were rare. Moudrik’s teammates multiplied the faults, conceding 3 yellow cards in 11 minutes.
Led 2-1, Ripoll resolved to change his team to 4-2-4 with Barcola, Kalimuendo, Wahi and Adli in front, after a short transition to 4-2-3-1. His choice could have paid off, if Wahi’s goal had not been refused for offside by the VAR (81st). Worse, France conceded a third goal a few minutes later. By eliminating Lukeba in the area, Artem Bondarenko scored the third Ukrainian goal (86th) with a small dive, causing the entire sidelines to explode with joy. The Blueberries have not recovered and are eliminated at the gates of the semi-finals.
By bowing, France continued a sad series: it has not won a match in the knockout phase at Euro Espoirs since May 25, 2002, against Switzerland.
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France has not won the Euro Espoirs since 1988, 35 years.
