Les Bleuets came into this contest with a perfect record in the group stage and quickly went on the front foot against a Ukraine side that had also navigated their group without losing.
That approach paid dividends in the 19th minute, as Bradley Barcola teed up his fellow Olympique Lyonnais forward Rayan Cherki, who had the presence of mind to wrong-foot Maksym Talovierov and slide his effort past Anatolii Trubin, scoring in back-to-back matches for the first time since February having also provided the opener against Switzerland.
Mykhailo Mudryk remained undeterred in his first U21 match since November 2021 and fronted Ukraine’s comeback, luring in Pierre Kalulu to win a penalty on the half-hour mark, and the winger’s ingenuity was rewarded as Georgiy Sudakov sent Lucas Chevalier the wrong way.
After Barcola’s curling effort hit the post before teasingly bouncing across goal, Mudryk created another chance for Sudakov before the break, this time playing a sublime ball that the frontman controlled brilliantly and slid home to put his nation ahead and go top of the tournament’s goalscoring charts.
The intensity remained in the second half, although the opening period’s scintillating play was replaced by a scrappy contest and a flurry of yellow cards, including one that keeps Dmytro Kryskiv out of the next round.
Even so, Ukraine will have been happy with the way things were progressing as the offside flag scuppered any hopes of big openings being created, which prompted Sylvain Ripoll to make a triple change.
Elye Wahi was one of the incoming faces and the forward thought he’d equalised late on after converting the rebound when Arnaud Kalimuendo’s header had been saved by Trubin, but he was caught offside.
Five minutes after that scare, Artem Bondarenko removed any doubt by drifting past Castello Lukeba and beating Chevalier with a delightful dink, as Ukraine set up a semi-final against Spain to keep dreams of going one further than their nation’s runners-up finish of 2006 intact.
Meanwhile, after France extended their all-time unbeaten record in the group stage at the U21 Euros, they have also now suffered defeat in five consecutive knockout matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Mykhailo Mudryk (Ukraine)
