{"id":179505,"date":"2025-06-12T22:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179505\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T22:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:37:13","slug":"preview-france-under-21-vs-georgia-under-21-prediction-team-news-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179505\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: France Under-21 vs Georgia Under-21 &#8211; prediction, team news, lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sports Mole previews Saturday&#8217;s European Under-21 Championship clash between France and Georgia, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/georgia-under-21s\/\" title=\"More Georgia Under-21s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Georgia Under-21s<\/strong><\/a> will be hoping to start the 2025 European Under-21 Championship with back-to-back wins when they take on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/france-under-21s\/\" title=\"More France Under-21s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">France Under-21s<\/strong><\/a> in Saturday\u2019s meeting in Zilina.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Les Bleuets are searching for their first win of the tournament after drawing with Portugal in their opening group game.<\/p>\n<p>Match preview<\/p>\n<p class=\"imgI\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"France Under-21s Chrislain Matsima on June 11, 2025\" class=\"vanilla-lazyload article-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/uploads\/2025\/06\/chrislain-matsima-684b3e5ecc5f.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38\">France will be dreaming of ending their long wait for glory at the Under-21 Euros after previously winning the tournament in 1988.<\/p>\n<p>While they have failed to claim the top prize in the past 37 years, France can be proud of the fact that they have reached the knockout rounds in all five of their previous appearances since the group stage was introduced.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, they have featured in the knockout rounds in each of the past three editions of the tournament, although they were unable to make it beyond the quarter-finals in 2021 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p>They kicked off the 2025 tournament with a goalless draw against Portugal, extending their unbeaten run to six matches.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\">The current crop of players can draw inspiration from the fact that France have all five of their previous group games that have taken place on the second matchday of the Under-21 European Championship, including a 1-0 win over Norway in the 2023 edition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\">Meanwhile, Georgia are making their second appearance at the Under-21 Euros after they made their tournament debut as hosts in 2023.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\">On that occasion, they upset the odds to finish top of a tricky group that included Portugal, Netherlands and Belgium.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\">Their hopes of another quarter-final appearance were boosted by a dramatic win in Wednesday&#8217;s opening game against Poland, as\u00a0Vasilios Gordeziani netted a stoppage-time winner to seal all three points after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/nodar-lominadze\/\" title=\"More Nodar Lominadze\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Nodar Lominadze<\/strong><\/a> had seen his effort cancelled out by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/jakub-kaluzinski\/\" title=\"More Jakub Kaluzinski\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Jakub Kaluzinski<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\">After getting off to a positive start, Georgia will now be looking to claim back-to-back victories for the first time in their short history at the European Under-21 Championships.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38; margin-top:16px; margin-bottom:16px\">Boasting a two-point advantage over France and Portugal, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/ramaz-svanadze\/\" title=\"More Ramaz Svanadze\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Ramaz Svanadze<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s side know they will secure their place in the quarter-finals with a game to spare if they are able to take all three points from Saturday&#8217;s contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>France Under-21 form (all competitions)<\/p>\n<p>D D W W W D<\/p>\n<p>Georgia Under-21 form (all competitions)<\/p>\n<p>W L W W L W<\/p>\n<p>Team News<\/p>\n<p class=\"imgI\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Georgia Under-21s Irakli Azarovi on June 11, 2025\" class=\"vanilla-lazyload article-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/uploads\/2025\/06\/irakli-azarovi-684b3f292b2ea24.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38\">France midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/ismael-doukoure\/\" title=\"More Ismael Doukoure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Ismael Doukoure<\/strong><\/a> will have to be assessed after he was forced off in the closing stages of the draw with Portugal.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/soungoutou-magassa\/\" title=\"More Soungoutou Magassa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Soungoutou Magassa<\/strong><\/a> is waiting in the wings if Doukoure is unable to feature, while Thierno Barry is pushing to get the nod over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/matthis-abline\/\" title=\"More Matthis Abline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Matthis Abline<\/strong><\/a> up front.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/wilson-odobert\/\" title=\"More Wilson Odobert\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Wilson Odobert<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/mathys-tel\/\" title=\"More Mathys Tel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Mathys Tel<\/strong><\/a> are both set to retain their spots on the flanks, although <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/gerald-baticle\/\" title=\"More Gerald Baticle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Gerald Baticle<\/strong><\/a> does have the option to turn to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/loum-tchaouna\/\" title=\"More Loum Tchaouna\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Loum Tchaouna<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/jean-matteo-bahoya\/\" title=\"More Jean-Matteo Bahoya\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Jean-Matteo Bahoya<\/strong><\/a> if he wants to freshen up his attacking options.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height:1.38\">As for Georgia, Lominadze will hope to prove his fitness in time after being forced off in the second half of Wednesday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n<p>Gordeziani is pushing for a starting spot after coming off the bench to score the stoppage-time winner against Poland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/gizo-mamageishvili\/\" title=\"More Gizo Mamageishvili\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Gizo Mamageishvili<\/strong><\/a> is also hoping to earn a starting berth, which could see Giorgi Abuashvili drop out of the lineup for Saturday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n<p><strong>France Under-21 possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Restes; Sildillia, Matsima, Lukeba, Merlin; Diouf, Magassa; Odobert, Lepenant, Tel; Barry<\/p>\n<p><strong>Georgia Under-21 possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kharatishvili; Maisuradze, Sazonov, Khvadagiani, Azarovi; Sigua, Lominadze, Gagnidze; Mamageishvili, Odisharia, Gordeziani<\/p>\n<p class=\"sm_center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"SM words green background\" class=\"l\" height=\"53\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/20\/33\/sm-words-green-background.png\" title=\"SM words green background\" width=\"210\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We say: France Under-21s 2-1 Georgia Under-21s<\/p>\n<p>Georgia may have got the better of Poland on Wednesday, but they are set to face a step in quality in Saturday&#8217;s tricky game against France.<\/p>\n<p>We ultimately believe that France will show their class to claim their first win of the tournament via a narrow scoreline.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ID:575431:1false2false3false: from db desktop :LenBod:collect7374:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports Mole previews Saturday&#8217;s European Under-21 Championship clash between France and Georgia, including predictions, team news and possible&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[4230,68644,2000,299,94,707,36,71118,73872,2826,22138,7126,101,4151,93,68303,10938,1068],"class_list":{"0":"post-179505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-epl","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-france-under-21s","16":"tag-georgia-under-21s","17":"tag-golf","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-olympics","20":"tag-premier-league","21":"tag-rugby","22":"tag-sport","23":"tag-sports-mole","24":"tag-teams","25":"tag-tennis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114672792047705432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}