19
21:19
Tooor for France, 1-0 by Rayan Cherki
With a strong attack, the Bleuets now take the lead. Le Fée plays an absolute sugar pass into Barcola’s run, which in turn sees Cherki moving up. He could do it directly from 13 meters, but decelerates cleverly and then puts the ball on his left foot. Dry he sinks the ball from eleven meters in the lower right corner. Nothing to do for Trubin.
17
21:17
Le Fée is back and France can take the free-kick that was due, which Cherki chases well past the Ukrainian goal from 23 meters out. No danger.
15
21:16
Maksym Taloverov clears Enzo Le Fée seven meters from his own penalty area with his leg stretched out. The Bleuets player is injured and needs treatment on the field. Taloverov, meanwhile, is lucky not to see the first yellow card of the game for this rustic attack.
12.
21:13
The next pass to Barcola works, but the Olympique Lyon attacker cannot control the ball. Sych is there and takes the ball from Barcola.
11.
21:12
Rayan Cherki has some space on the right wing, but the cross into the Ukrainian penalty area is far too imprecise and comes straight to Maksym Taloverov, who resolutely clears with a header.
9.
21:10
France are very deep, which makes it difficult for Ukraine to make progress in the game. Georgiy Sudakov can fix the ball in the middle and could send Oleksiy Sych into the interface with a pass. However, he overpowers the pass so that his teammate only reaches the ball just before the baseline. On the subsequent flank, the French box is again too well occupied for anything to burn.
6.
21:07
The first chance of the game belongs to the Bleuets. Barcola is through to the Gouiri Pass, but then has to do it directly from a very acute angle. With a right-footed shot from six yards, Trubin gets his legs together in time. The follow-up shot from Cherki then comes too centrally to the Ukrainian goalkeeper, who grabs it safely.
4.
21:05
Bradley Barcola pulls out the first corner with a push on the right. Amine Gouiri takes a short lead to Maxence Caqueret, but his cross is cleared off the far post by Oleksiy Sych. The following corner then fizzles out because Rayan Cherki’s cross is too imprecise.
1.
21:01
The ball rolls in the Cluj Arena. The French compete in their blue shirts over white shorts. The Ukraine U21s are dressed all in yellow. Here we go.
20:35
The Under-21 national teams of France and Ukraine have met in eight international matches so far and the Bleuets have won three times and half of all meetings have ended in a draw. In the last meeting so far a year ago, the qualification for the U21 European Championships was hot between the two teams. After Ukraine was already 1:3 behind after 25 minutes, the Yellow-Blues reported impressively back and forced a 3:3 in the end.
20:25
After back-to-back victories against Croatia and hosts Romania, Ukraine were safely through to the quarter-finals before their final group game against Spain. All the more respectable was the 2:2 draw that the yellow-blues took from the Spaniards despite strong rotation. Coach Ruslan Rotan returns to his best eleven today and makes nine changes. Only Kostiantyn Vivcharenko and Dmytro Kryskiv are back on the pitch from the start.
20:19
The Ukrainian U21 national football team is currently taking part in a U21 European Championship for the third time in history. After the yellow-blues reached the final on their debut in 2006, which they lost 3-0 against the Netherlands, 2011 was the final stop in the preliminary round. This time, Ukraine finished second in Group B behind Spain with seven points from a possible nine to qualify for the knockout rounds again.
20:13
In the last group game, the Bleuets celebrated a 4-1 victory over Switzerland on Wednesday evening. Coach Sylvain Ripoll does not see much need for action compared to this game, but has to react to the serious injury to Gladbach’s Mano Koné. There are two changes in the U21s of the Équipe Tricolore: Enzo Le Fée and Mohamed Simakan are preferred to Loïc Badé (bench) and Manu Koné (knee injury).
20:07
In just one of the last eight European U21 Championships has France progressed beyond the quarter-finals. This year, however, the Bleuets marched very confidently through the preliminary round with three wins from three group games with 7:2 goals and thus secured the group victory. All in all, “Les Espoirs” (in English: the hopes) have only lost one of their last 19 international matches (13 wins, five draws).
20:00
Good evening and welcome from the Cluj Arena. Here, at 9:00 p.m., the U21 national football teams of France and Ukraine will face each other in the final quarter-finals of the U21 European Championship 2023.