Portugal U21 vs France U21 prediction: EUROPE: Euro U21 betting tips on match 2025-06-10 19:00.
[p]Matchday one of the 2025 UEFA European U21 Championships throws up a rare clash at this level between two of the continent’s heavyweights as Portugal take on France in their first meeting for 14 years. Remarkably, Rui Jorge was in charge of Portugal for that previous encounter and is still at the helm today, having now led them to five of the last six editions of the Euros, reaching two finals in that time but never tasting glory.[/p]
[p]This time round, the Iberians’ qualifying campaign was near perfect, winning nine of their ten games (L1) and scoring 2+ goals in every victory during that sequence. More recently though, their warm-up for this tournament has seen them suffer back-to-back friendly defeats against Romania and England, and worrying signs of fragility were on show, with a goal conceded after the 85th minute in both of those matches.[/p]
[p]France are one-time winners of the U21 Euros, but that sole triumph came back in 1988, and the closest they have come since was being beaten on penalties in the 2002 final by the Czech Republic. Their path to this tournament was not exactly a smooth one, with GĂ©rald Baticle taking over as head coach from Thierry Henry midway through the qualifying campaign, which ended with Les Bleuets reaching the finals as one of the three best-performing runners-up (W5, D1, L2).[/p]
[p]Having incredibly missed out on six consecutive editions of the tournament between 2007 and 2017, France will now appear at their fourth straight U21 Euros, and there has been a distinct improvement in performances in 2025 since qualifying. Their three warm-up friendlies all brought wins, including an eye-catching 5-3 success against England, which makes for good reading ahead of this Group C opener at the Ĺ tadiĂłn Sihot in TrenÄŤĂn.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Celtic’s Paulo Bernardo has scored four goals in his last six international appearances for the U21s, and the most recent two have both come in the 89th minute. Bayern Munich’s Mathys Tel has six goal involvements in 11 caps for France’s U21s (G5, A1), with four of those recorded after the hour mark.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: The team that has scored first has won five of the seven H2Hs between the pair.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Ben Olawumi[/i][/p]