Les Bleuets overthrown by Ukraine and eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Euro Espoirs

The European adventure of Les Bleuets is over. Defeated by Ukraine in the quarter-finals (3-1), the France team was eliminated from the Euro Espoirs, Sunday July 2, in Cluj (Romania). While leading in the score, Sylvain Ripoll’s players were knocked down by the young Ukrainians, and failed to find a way to get back into the game.

They can only blame themselves, since they were punished by two individual errors. Ukraine first equalized on a penalty conceded by Pierre Kalulu at the edge of the area, and converted by Georgiy Sudakov (32nd). The Shakhtar player went there with his double just before the break (44th) on a very good counter-attack, taking advantage of an approximate defensive alignment. Les Bleuets had already been hot in the 23rd, when Dmytro Kryskiv was flagged offside after playing the defense.

Strong and efficient Ukraine

After a last match against Switzerland which had hinted at progress, the Blues will be able to harbor regrets. They failed to capitalize on their good start and Rayan Cherki’s opener after a nice feint (19′). Very restless on his side, Bradley Barcola found the post (38th) and several times sowed panic in the defense (40th, 67th), without finding the nets. When they returned from the locker room, they held the ball but stumbled on the opposing block for a long time, tight and ready to burst into a counter-attack.

Khephren Thuram and his teammates went through all the emotions at the end of the match, when Elye Wahi thought he had the equalizer, but the Montpellier goal was canceled for offside. A few minutes later, Artem Bondarenko closed the proceedings definitively by scoring the 3-1 goal on a controlled dive ball (86th).

In the semi-finals, Ukraine will challenge Spain, a week after the draw between the two teams (2-2) for the last day of the group stage. The other semi-final will oppose Israel and England.