France vs Ukraine facts

France and Ukraine face a rapid reunion as they meet in the last UEFA European Under-21 Championship quarter-final at the Cluj Arena.

The teams were also paired in qualifying, France recording a 5-0 home win – Ukraine's biggest competitive defeat at this level against opponents they have managed to beat only once in nine attempts – before a 3-3 draw in Istanbul.

Ukraine, however, have earned a first knockout appearance in 17 years and were only denied first place in Group B by a 90th-minute Spain equaliser in a 2-2 draw on Matchday 3. France won all three Group D games to finish first in the section by a margin of six points and were the top scorers in the group stage with seven goals.

Previous meetings

France overwhelmed Ukraine 5-0 at the Stade Francis-Le Blé in Brest on 8 October 2021, although Ukraine played for more than an hour with ten men after Maksym Talovyerov's 27th-minute red card. Goals either side of half-time from Arnaud Kalimuendo (40), Sofiane Diop (43) and Amine Adli (54) set up the win before Rayan Cherki's double (68, 80).

The goals were evenly shared at the Esenyurt Necmi Kadıoğlu Stadium in Istanbul on 9 June 2022, Matthis Abline giving France a third-minute lead in their final qualifier. Vladyslav Vanat brought Ukraine level within four minutes but Khéphren Thuram restored the visitors' lead in the tenth minute. Amine Gouiri (25) made it 3-1 but a Benoît Badiashile own goal a minute before the break restored Ukraine hopes and Artem Bondarenko earned a 3-3 draw five minutes after half-time.

France finished top of the section on 26 points, three more than runners-up Ukraine.

Ukraine's only win in their eight competitive matches against France had come in the previous fixture, a 1-0 win at Kyiv's Obolon Arena in September 2016. France had won the earlier fixture 2-0 in Strasbourg thanks to late goals from Thomas Lemar (70) and Adrien Rabiot (77) but both sides missed out on the final tournament, France finishing second in Group 3, a point behind North Macedonia, with Ukraine six further back in fourth.

The teams had shared two 2-2 draws in the 2011 qualifying competition, helping Ukraine to finish first in Group 8 – and ultimately reach the final tournament via the play-offs – with France eliminated in third.

That made it three successive European U21 Championship draws between the teams after a 0-0 draw in Kyiv in September 1999; France had won 4-0 in Paris that March, David Trezeguet scoring all four goals, but neither side would reach the finals, Ukraine eliminated after finishing third in Group 4 and France losing 3-2 on aggregate to Italy in the play-offs.

The teams have met in only one U21 friendly, a 1-1 draw in Kyiv on 5 June 2011.

France captain Maxence Caqueret opened the scoring in a 3-1 defeat of Ukraine in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round on 25 March 2017. Gouiri came on for France while Olexiy Kashchuk started for Ukraine.

Gouiri was a late substitute as France lost 2-1 to Ukraine on Matchday 1 of the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, although both sides would go on to progress from Group B.

Form guide

France

France are in the knockout rounds for the fifth time since the final tournament was introduced in 1998. They have won only one of their five previous ties, beating hosts Switzerland 2-0 in the 2002 semi-final but losing the four most recent.

France's quarter-final record is W3 L4. They lost their first three ties, the last of them against Spain in 1986 (1-3 h, 1-3 a), but had won three in a row before losing 2-1 to the Netherlands in 2021. That was their first quarter-final since the 1996 victory against Germany (0-0 a, 4-1 h).

Champions in 1988 with a squad including Laurent Blanc, Eric Cantona, Franck Sauzée and Jocelyn Angloma, this is France's seventh appearance in the final tournament and third in a row.

Having missed out for six successive tournaments from 2007 onwards, France got to the semi-finals on their return in 2019 and the quarter-finals two years ago. France have qualified five times since a group stage was introduced in 2000, and have reached the knockout rounds on each occasion.

In 2021 Sylvain Ripoll's squad finished second in Group C behind Denmark before going out to the Netherlands in the last eight, the decisive goal coming three minutes into added time.

This time round France remained unbeaten to qualify as Group H winners, winning eight of their games and scoring 31 goals while conceding only five, three of them in that 3-3 draw against Ukraine in their final fixture.

Gouiri was Les Bleuets' top scorer in qualifying with five goals. Badiashile, who is not in the final tournament squad, started all ten matches, while four other players – Kalulu, Caqueret, Diop (another finals absentee) and Kalimuendo – also featured in every game.

Ripoll's side eased through Group D thanks to wins against Italy (2-1), Norway (1-0) and Switzerland (4-1).

France have won 13 of their 15 matches in the group stage (D1 L1). They have never conceded more than once in any of those 15 games, keeping ten clean sheets.

Bradley Barcola was one of five players level on two goals after the group stage, along with England's Emile Smith Rowe, Abel Ruiz of Spain and Switzerland pair Kastriot Imeri and Dan Ndoye.

Ukraine

Ukraine are making only their second appearance in the knockout rounds; this is their first quarter-final.

Ukraine are making their third finals appearance and a first since 2011, when they finished bottom of Group B having failed to win a game (D1 L2).

Five years earlier they had reached the final on debut, winning their group and beating Serbia and Montenegro 5-4 on penalties after a goalless draw in the semi-finals before a 3-0 defeat in the final against a Netherlands side Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko's team had beaten 2-1 on Matchday 1.

Ukraine were third in their qualifying section for the 2021 tournament, behind Denmark and Romania.

This time round, Ruslan Rotan's side qualified with a play-off victory against Slovakia (2-3 a, 3-0 h), Danylo Sikan scoring a second-leg hat-trick.

Ukraine had finished second in Group H on 23 points, three behind France. They won seven of their ten matches and lost only one, albeit their heaviest ever qualifying defeat – 5-0 away to the section winners.

Dmytro Kryskiv, who scored in the first-leg loss in Slovakia, was Ukraine's top scorer in qualifying with four goals.

At the final tournament, Ukraine beat Croatia (2-0) and co-hosts Romania (1-0) to seal progress from Group B with a game to spare. Level with Spain on six points, a Matchday 3 win would have given Ukraine first place in the section and Georgiy Sudakov's 81st-minute penalty put them on course only for Spain to salvage a 2-2 draw in the final minute.

The defeats of Croatia and Romania were the first time Ukraine had won successive U21 EURO final tournament matches, excluding victories via penalty shoot-outs.

Links and trivia

Mykhailo Mudryk scored against Mohamed Simakan's Leipzig in Shakhtar Donetsk's 4-1 win in Germany on Matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League group stage on 6 September 2022. Simakan scored the German side's goal past Anatoliy Trubin while Bondarenko and Sudakov were part of Shakhtar's starting line-up.

Simakan's Leipzig won 4-0 in the Matchday 6 return, Trubin, Mudryk, Bondarenko and Sudakov all starting for Shakhtar.

Bondarenko and Dmytro Kryskiv were on the scoresheet as Shakhtar beat Rennes, for whom Gouiri and Kalimuendo started, 2-1 in Warsaw in the UEFA Europa League knockout play-off first leg on 16 February. Trubin and Sudakov also started the game, with Sikan coming on.

Trubin was the Shakhtar hero a week later, saving three kicks as Shakhtar won 5-4 on penalties after a 2-1 away win that meant a 3-3 aggregate draw. Sudakov and Bondarenko successfully converted their penalties, while Sikan hit the crossbar; Gouiri scored his penalty for Rennes.

Goalkeeper Ruslan Neshcheret and defender Oleksandr Syrota started Dynamo Kyiv's 1-0 defeat in Krakow against a Rennes team featuring Kalimuendo and substitute Gouiri in the UEFA Europa League group stage on 13 October 2022.

Okeksandr Syrota was an unused substitute in both games as Ukraine drew 1-1 twice against France in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Ukraine coach Rotan lost four of his six games against France as a player. Even the sole victory proved in vain, Ukraine's 2-0 first-leg win in the 2014 World Cup play-offs undone by a 3-0 away loss four days later.