Will Les Bleus secure a direct ticket to the 2026 World Cup?
In Group D of the European World Cup qualifiers, the French soccer team is striding toward victory in the group. With two games remaining, they are three points ahead of Ukraine, whom the Équipe Tricolore already beat 2-0 in the first leg in Poland. If Didier Deschamps’ team wins the return leg between France and Ukraine, they will secure a direct ticket to the big final tournament, which will take place next summer in the USA, Mexico, and Canada. Even with a draw, however, nothing should really go wrong.
The Blue and Yellows therefore need an away win – also to keep Iceland at bay and avoid a possible final for second place, which would otherwise take place on Sunday in Warsaw. Basically, however, we don’t think the Ukrainians stand much chance of upsetting the Équipe Tricolore away at the Parc des Princes, especially since Didier Deschamps has to do without the injured PSG stars Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué, but otherwise has all his big names at his disposal. A clear home win for the French is therefore much more likely, which is why we are applying a handicap of -1.
Bayern’s Michael Olise already put his team ahead in the tenth minute of the first leg. We can imagine a similar lightning start in the return leg on the Seine, which is why an interesting alternative to the handicap tip is to bet that Les Bleus will already be leading at half-time and will ultimately win the home game. For the half-time score bet, Bet-at-home is offering odds of 1.65 for France against Ukraine.
France – Ukraine Head-to-head comparison / H2H record
Head to head: 6 – 5 – 1
A total of twelve matches have taken place between the two nations so far, and Ukraine has only managed to beat France once. The first leg, which took place on neutral ground in Wroclaw, also went 2-0 to the Équipe Tricolore, who are now unbeaten in five international matches against the Blue and Yellows (three wins, two draws).
France – Ukraine Tip
The betting odds from the top bookmakers are clearly and unambiguously in favor of France against Ukraine, as Les Bleus have not only not lost any of their last five international matches against the Blue and Yellows (three wins, two draws), but also won the first leg 2-0 on neutral ground in Poland. Les Bleus would take a big step towards winning the group and qualifying for the 2026 World Cup with a draw in front of their home crowd. Against this backdrop, Didier Deschamps has decided against experimenting and is likely to field his best possible eleven against the visitors from Ukraine at the Parc des Princes.
Although the Blue and Yellows have been performing somewhat better recently, we consider a prediction of a point for coach Serhiy Rebrov’s team against France to be untenable. Rather, we could imagine the visitors being crushed on the Seine and suffering a clear defeat.
Therefore, our main recommendation is to place a handicap of -1 on the Équipe Tricolore. Betano is offering odds of 1.62 for this, which we are betting on with five out of ten units.
