Gérald Baticle had probably imagined something else. For the first time on the bench of Thierry Henry’s successor, the French U21 team failed to win against Slovenia (1-1) in the Euro 2025 qualifiers, in a rather uneven match.
With an attack that has necessarily been reworked since the Olympics (Lacazette and Mateta are not eligible, Olise has moved up to the senior team), the Bleuets lacked inspiration in the first half. And it was not undeserved that the Slovenians opened the scoring through Tio Cipot (37th), on a clearance in the middle that was completely missed by Quentin Merlin.
The Bleuets third in their group
The OM full-back made up for it by providing the assist for Désiré Doué’s equaliser (54th), before being dangerous on several occasions with strikes (65th, 78th). Overall, the Bleuets reacted well with Doué as the spearhead, but also Maghnes Akliouche (65th), without forgetting the attackers launched by Baticle along the way like Georginio Rutter (85th).
Unfortunately, the Tricolores did not manage to score this second goal which would have allowed them to regain the lead of the group at the expense of the Slovenians. Worse, with the victory of Austria (where the Bleuets had lost last November, under Henry), France slips to third place in its group with a game in hand. It will be necessary to finish first to qualify directly for Euro 2025 or second to go to the play-offs. There is still work to be done…
