Ukraine vs France Prediction, Preview, Predicted Lineups and Team News | World Cup Qualifiers, 2025

Ukraine vs France Preview

Tournament: World Cup Qualifiers UEFA

Date: Friday, 5th September 2025

Kick-off Time: 6:45 PM GMT

Venue: Tarczynski Arena

In the opening match of their respective World Cup qualifying campaigns, Ukraine will play France at a neutral venue in Wroclaw on Friday night. France will only need three months to settle into one of the four-team qualifying groups as a result of their participation in the UEFA Nations League finals.

Didier Deschamps made France's official list for this game, with notably no Antoine Griezmann, ending a long run of international games and focusing the attacking priorities on players such as Kylian Mbappe, Marcus Thuram, and Ousmane Dembele. The French team are expected to introduce a quick pace and creativity to the game since they have been performing well, beating top-level European nations in the Nations League and Euro 2024.

Ukraine, however, come into the game with a good record—they have only lost twice in their last eight games—but will be hindered by serious challenges, including injuries to key players, particularly in goal.

Although historically France has had the advantage, previous meetings between these sides have frequently been fiercely contested, with Ukraine achieving hard-earned draws against France in recent qualifiers.

Deschamps will not be renewing his contract with the national team following the conclusion of the World Cup finals in North America next summer; thus, this match marks the beginning of the end for him. After losing again in the June Nations League finals, this will be Deschamps' final opportunity to add a trophy to the World Cup they won in 2018.

Ukraine National Football Team News

Serhii Rebrov, the head coach of Ukraine, has called up 26 players, including Bohdan Mykhailichenko and Nazar Voloshyn, who took Oleksandr Tymchyk's position due to injury. Eleven members of the team compete in foreign competitions, while Illia Zabarnyi just joined the list of well-known international players by moving to PSG for 63 million euros. With new talent and a revitalised sense of resolve, the squad is prepared to start its qualifications.

France National Football Team News

Important players like Kylian Mbappe, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Mike Maignan are part of France's 22-man team, which was announced by Didier Deschamps for the September World Cup qualifying round. Lucas Chevalier is one of the four players from PSG vying for the custodian position. After joining Al Hilal, Theo Hernandez keeps his position, and the team combines recent club success with experience to try to get off to a solid start in Group D.

Ukraine vs France Predicted Lineups

Ukraine National Football Team Predicted Lineup

Goalkeeper: Andriy Lunin

Defenders: Nazar Voloshyn, Illia Zabarnyi, Taras Mykhavko, Vitalii Mykolenko

Midfielders: Viktor Tsyhankov, Artem Bondarenko, Yehor Yarmoliuk

Forwards: Roman Yaremchuk, Artem Dovbyk, Vladyslav Vanat

France National Football Team Predicted Lineup

Goalkeeper: Mike Maignan

Defenders: Jules Kounde, William Saliba, Lucas Hernandez, Malo Gusto

Midfielders: Aurelien Tchouameni, Adrien Rabiot, Khephren Thuram

Forwards: Kylian Mbappe, Marcus Thuram, Ousmane Dembele

Ukraine vs France Head-to-Head Record

There have been twelve international football matches between France and Ukraine. Five games have resulted in draws, while France has triumphed six times and Ukraine only once.

Key Players to Watch Out in Ukraine vs France

Kylian Mbappe (France)

As the French national team captain, Mbappe was involved in goals directly in his previous two international appearances and will be keen to continue his trend and increase his total in his 91st game for France. Most prominently, Mbappe recently scored his 50th international goal as France won third place for the UEFA Nations League against Germany with a score of 2-0 and was awarded Player of the Match and commended for his game-winning influence by the UEFA Technical Observer Panel. Mbappe's La Liga stats for the current 2025/2026 season reflect 3 goals in 3 games with an incredible 1.01 goals per 90 minutes, and his non-penalty expected goals overall put him in the top percentile at his position.

Viktor Tsyhankov (Ukraine)

Despite dealing with a minor injury recently, Tsyhankov remains vital for both club and country, consistently featuring in match squads and maintaining strong contributions even amid adversity. In Ukraine’s latest squad announcement for the qualifiers, head coach Serhii Rebrov reaffirmed Tsyhankov’s importance by including him among a select group of attacking options, citing his experience and ability to influence high-stakes matches. At the international level, Tsyhankov has 13 goals from 61 appearances for Ukraine—one of the leading modern goal scorers for the national team—mirroring a steady record at competitive games and qualifiers.

Ukraine vs France Prediction

With attacking players such as Kylian Mbappe and Kadidiatou Diani, who have the ability to win games single-handedly, Les Bleus have won their recent games. Ukraine has, however, been tough to defeat in past games and cannot be underestimated, especially with the support of their home crowd. While Ukraine might have opportunities to find the scores, France's goal-scoring prowess is likely to assure the win, with the team having an inconsistent performance and being worse against highly ranked sides. On the basis of past scoring trends of the two sides, the match is likely to end with both sides scoring, but the overall better performance of France would result in a probable 3-1 win.

Predicted Score: Ukraine 1-3 France

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