This will be played from June 9 to July 2, 2023 in Georgia and Romania.
To validate their ticket and first place in Group H, Sylvain Ripoll's players, in the lead with six points ahead of Ukraine, whom they will face in Turkey to end their campaign, will have to win on June 6 in Yerevan. against Armenia, a nation they had crushed in November (7-0) already at the Stade des Alpes, a ground that suits them well.
Facing the Serbs whom they had beaten in the first leg (3-0), the French, winners of six of their seven matches and above all authors of 25 goals without conceding since the draw conceded to the Faroe Islands on November 6, 2021 ( 1-1), their only hitch, largely dominated the meeting.
And they should have won more, the end result being rather flattering for the Serbs.
Even if they monopolized the ball with sometimes very good collective actions against an opponent forced to defend, they had to wait until the very end of the first period to finally take a deserved advantage with a goal from Khephren Thuram.
The latter, who flew over the midfield with Maxence Caqueret and Eduardo Camavinga, victoriously headed a deep cross delivered from the right wing by Pierre Kalulu (42).
Amine Gouiri brought the score to 2-0 on the hour mark by adjusting goalkeeper Milos Gordic, thus validating a good opening from Camavinga delivered from the center of the field (60).
After the changes made by Ripoll in the second half with in particular the exits of Thuram and Gouiri (66), still dangerous in the 63rd, and Camavinga (72), the domination of the French was less pressing.
However, they still obtained very good chances by Mohamed-Ali Cho (79, 80) Sofiane Diop (86), Kouadio Koné (89), Arnaud Kalimuendo (90) and finally Benoît Badiashile with a miraculous save from Gordic (90+ 3) which should have made the gap worse.
© 2022 AFP