France vs Czech Republic: Euro 2026 Qualifiers – Match Recap

Thank you for following this great entry into the running of the Blues in this European Championship. The second match of the Blues against Ukraine (Saturday, 6 p.m.) will also be followed live with commentary on leparisien.fr See you soon!

“The challenge for the France team, we know, was to win the match. We won it, in style we’ll say, with a nice margin so it’s cool it allows everyone to be able to play, especially us young people, me and Wallem (Peleka). We were able to play, we were able to show what we knew how to do, we helped as best we could, brought what we could bring to the team and we are very proud of it,” reacted the left-back, called up at the last minute after Nedim Remili’s withdrawal.

“The misfortune of one person makes the happiness of others. Of course it pisses me off for Ned that he got injured, but like you said it’s good for me because it opens a door for me. I try to do my best and bring what I can to the team,” added Aymeric Zaepfel about his very first minutes in Blue at the Euro.

“It’s a satisfactory performance. It’s a successful first step, it’s a broad workforce review. It’s a match which allowed us in all configurations to see boys who have returned to their Euro. And this is often one of the secondary objectives. Of course we are there to win the match in the first place but when we have the impression that everyone has taken a step in their competition, has freed themselves from the tension of this start of the championship, it is something which is very positive as a coach,” reacted the French coach.

“It’s also the quality of this team when the score is made, to stay serious, focused, to continue to do interesting things and to show the difference that exists between the two teams and somehow to extinguish the Czech Republic. They have a difficult game, which when you let them express themselves, can really be annoying to play so I am very satisfied with the overall performance,” added Guillaume Gille, before saying more about the state of health of Aymeric Minne.

“He took a hit. From the moment you saw him in the second half, things were still going pretty well. Now, these are the kind of shots that you have to be careful with so we will of course pamper him to make sure that there are no problems in the coming days.”

“Of course today there is general satisfaction, we wanted victory, we got it. I think it was a good start so we’re quite happy. Now, the little details still need to be worked on. It’s the start of the tournament, we have time. We just have to work, see what went wrong and (we are) ready for Ukraine,” declared the French left winger on BeIN Sports.

The 42 goals scored in the first match? “It proves that we respected our opponent of the day. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. “It’s a team that hits a lot so we had to stay calm as we did at the start of the match with a good start where we made it 6-0, we knew how to keep that throughout this match and that’s what made the score,” he continued.

New interception and first goal for Wallem-Konrad Peleka in the empty net!

Dominik Solak is excluded for two minutes for his fault. The Czechs will play with empty goals in attack as they have for a few minutes.

The Blues recover the ball high on the pitch and set off in pairs towards the goal… but the Czech goalkeeper intervenes. The Blues still have a 12-goal lead and are heading quietly towards victory.

On the rapid counterattack, Choteborsky leaves Bolzinger no chance. Even if it is difficult, the Czechs did not decide to give up the match either (39-27)

Nicolas Tournat, again, at point blank range! The Czechs have cracked and see the French goals go by.

Aymeric Zaepfel’s third goal in this match before another save from Bolzinger and the 38th French goal by Nicolas Tournat.

Pavel Choteborsky deceives Charles Bolzinger: 36-23 for France at the start of the last 10 minutes.

Aymeric Zaepfel, called up at the last minute, hits a right-handed shot into the Czech goals.

The Czechs, who attack with seven, hit Charles Bolzinger’s post… and offer a seven-meter throw to the Blues, managed by Richardson.

Still strong, Dika Mem gives the Blues a 13-goal lead at the start of the last quarter of an hour of this first match.

Exit, French center-half Aymeric Minne gets his thigh strapped on the bench and grimaces according to the commentators on site.

Since returning from the locker room, the Blues have not let their opponents get back into the match and almost systematically score after the Czech goals.

The Blues begin to increase their lead over the Czechs, who requested their first timeout of the second period.

Very nice Czech shot but Elohim Prandi responds immediately. On the next possession, Dylan Nahi steals the ball and goes on his own to finish in the goals (30-19).

Jan Hrdlicka repels the French shot but Charles Bolzinger wins for the second time in a row on the Czech attack. Still a gap of ten goals.

After the Blues’ bad luck, the Czechs did not hesitate and scored an 18th goal…. before Yannis Lenne restored a 10-goal lead.

Ludovic Fabregas gives the Blues a ten-goal lead for the first time in this match: 27-17.

Nahi, Tuma, Prandi… the two teams respond blow for blow with goals. The Blues lead 26-17.

Petr Ciroky finds the fault and deceives Bolzinger in the corner.

Filip Tuma is excluded for two minutes and lets Melvyn Richardson succeed in his seven-meter throw (23-15).

No save from Charles Bolzinger but the Czech shot is off target.

Aymeric Minne notices just after the Czechs’ goal. 22-15 for the Blues.

With luck and help from the post, Aymeric Minne already launched the Blues from the first minute.

Charles Bolzinger comes into play for the second half in the French goals.

On the free throw, the ball returned to Solak who scored the Czechs’ 14th goal. There is possibly a French fault in this action.

Melvyn Richardson restored a six-goal lead before Julien Bos scored a 7th a few minutes before the break. 20-13 for France.

After their very good start, the French are less dominant and have had more difficulty finding Czech goals for a large handful of minutes.

Served by Bos, Benoit Kounkound scores his 100th goal with the Blues! It had been several minutes since the French (and the Czechs) had found the net.

Already the Czech goalkeeper’s third save in this match, this time in front of Nicolas Tournat. Since the Blues’ 17-12 goal, neither team has managed to score on their possessions.

This time, it’s Guillaume Gille who asks for a break after this little weak moment from his players.

Benoit Kounkound finally scores for the French after several failed offensives.

Losing the ball for the Blues and the Czechs score their 3rd goal in a row. Be careful not to let them come back any further.

Two consecutive goals for Petr Siroky who finished in the Desbonnet cages.

The Czech Republic request another timeout in this first period. The Blues lead 16-9.

The Czech goal was empty and Rémi Desbonnet did not hesitate to shoot from his goal to score after the ball was returned to the French.

Solak gives the French goalkeeper no chance, but Minne scores straight away on the next action (15-8).

After the Czech goal, Dika Mem gets another throw from seven meters and it makes 3/3 for Richardson.

Melvyn Richardson finds the fault and gives the Blues a seven-goal lead.

Elohim Prandi tries to shoot from distance on this free kick but the ball goes well over. He was hit and remains on the ground, the referee will watch the video.

Yannis Lenne was in turn sent off two minutes after this 5th Czech goal.

Things are better for the Czechs who scored 4 goals in 4 minutes after scoring none in the first 5 minutes.

Here too, a very good action allows the Czechs to come back to six goals…. before conceding another goal.

Nicolas Tournat comes into play and Dika Mem finishes magnificently high on a perfect pass from Prandi.