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Europe, News, Under 19s

France and Serbia Reach European U19 Championship Final

Benzia will be keen to make his mark on Lyon's first team next year.

Benzia will be keen to make his mark on Lyon’s first team next year.

France and Serbia will meet in Thursday’s European Under 19 Championship final after defeating Spain and Portugal respectively.

France had to wait until extra time to knock out the reigning champions after they recovered from José Rodriguez’s 27th minute penalty.

Yassine Benzia, who has become a star of this tournament, grabbed the equaliser two minutes later after Corentin Jean slid him through for an easy one-on-one chance.

Borja Lopez and Pablo Iniguez had the best chances for Spain in the second half and they were ultimately made to pay as failure to clear Kevin Rodrigues’ cross on two occasions led to an opportunity for Antoine Conte to put France ahead and he took his chance with a neatly-placed header in the 105th minute to send his side through to the final.

Serbia had to endure the nail-biting tension of a penalty shootout to reach the final when they played Portugal earlier today.

90 minutes and extra-time finished 2-2 so it was up to Aleksandar Mitrovic’s winning penalty to send Serbia through.

Uros Djurdevic gave Serbia the dream start after five minutes as he headed home from close range at the far post.

Bernardo Silva levelled the scores in the second half and Alexandre Guedes will have thought he had given Portugal the victory as he put them ahead on 79 minutes.

Miloš Veljković’s pass set up substitute Mijat Gacinovic to equalise on 85 minutes and send the game into extra-time and penalties.

 

About Tom Bennett

I'm a 21-year-old Multimedia Journalism student at Bournemouth University aspiring to be one of Britain's top sports journalists. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for contact and further information.

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