Sports Mole previews Tuesday’s European Under-17s Championship clash between France Under-17s and England Under-17s, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
On Tuesday, England Under-17s will kick off the European Under-17 Championship with a tricky game against last year’s runners-up France Under-17s.
France and England will have to be at their best to get out of a tough group which contains Iberian rivals Spain and Portugal.
Match preview
France will travel to Cyprus with aspirations of lifting the trophy for the fourth time after previously winning the tournament in 2004, 2015 and 2022.
They went close to defending their crown in last year’s tournament, advancing all the way to the final before losing to Germany on penalties.
France are now set to make their fourth consecutive appearance at the European Under-17 Championship after successfully negotiating their way through the qualifying process.
Jose Alcocer‘s side took five points from three games to advance to the elite round, before they claimed three consecutive victories to book their ticket to Cyprus.
They will certainly take confidence from the fact they beat England 2-1 in their final qualifying game thanks to Rayan Messi’s brace.
While England would have been disappointed with that defeat, they did have to play 75 minutes with ten men following Chris Rigg‘s red card.
Prior to that result, the Three Lions thrashed Northern Ireland 5-1 and thumped Hungary 5-0 to secure their place at a nine consecutive European Under-17 Championship.
England have previously won the competition on two occasions, clinching for the first time in 2010 before lifting it again in 2014.
Their best performance since winning the trophy 10 years ago took place in 2017 when they progressed to the final before losing in the penalty shootout to Spain.
The Three Lions made it out of the group phase in last year’s competition, only for France to eliminate them in the quarter-final stage.
France Under-17s form (all competitions):
England Under-17s form (all competitions):
Team News
Paris Saint-Germain’s Joane Gadou and Bordeaux’s Mathys Angely are set to operate as France’s centre-back pairing.
Yani Sellami, Darryl Bakola and Ayyoub Bouaddi are all pushing to start in the engine room for Tuesday’s contest.
Dijon’s Messi will be one of France’s main attacking outlets after scoring four goals in six qualifying appearances.
As for England, Sunderland midfielder Rigg will serve a one-match suspension after being sent off against France in March.
Three Lions boss Greg Lincoln is expected to name a back three of Stephen Mfuni, Kian Noble and Christian McFarlane.
Arsenal youngster Ethan Nwaneri will be looking to continue his fine form at this level, having scored in each of his last three appearances for England’s Under-17s.
France Under-17s possible starting lineup:
Stawiecki; Thebault, Gadou, Angely, Bienck; Sellami, Bakola, Bouaddi; Kouakou, Messi, Sternal,
England Under-17s possible starting lineup:
Brits; Mfuni, Noble, McFarlane; Shahar, Nwaneri, King, Harrison, Derry; Dipepa, Mukasa
We say: France Under-17s 2-1 England Under-17s
France have already beaten England this year, and we think they will draw confidence from that experience to claim a narrow win over the Three Lions in Tuesday’s contest.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
