France advance to U21 Euros despite Bahoya’s injury and red card for Dortmund defender Gadou

Former FC Bayern youngster Mathys Tel scored France U21's winner in a 3-2 rollercoaster win over Luxembourg in Lorient. The three points confirmed France sealed qualification for the tournament in Albania and Serbia with a game to spare.

Borussia Dortmund's center-back Joane Gadou played his second game for France U21 on Saturday, but the straight red card he saw in the 50th minute will now rule him out of the last group stage fixture against second-placed Switzerland. In a way, that's good news for Dortmund as they will be in action next Friday against Werder Bremen.

With the exception of the first round DFB-Pokal fixture at Oberliga side HEBC Hamburg, the 18-year-old defender started every game for the Black and Yellows since joining the club in the summer from RB Salzburg. 

France U21 will also most likely be without Jean-Matteo Bahoya against Switzerland as the Leeds United loanee suffered an injury ten minutes after Steve Ngoura completed a first-half brace.

The 21-year-old is struggling for playing time with the Premier League side, but he started all three games for Gerald Baticle’s side in this international break. However, he had to be substituted off after only 35 minutes on Saturday as Tel came on in his place. Bild reported this week that Daniel Farke's side agreed a deal to sign him permanently from Eintracht Frankfurt for €30 million if he reached ten appearances.

The France U21 captain Tel is struggling at club level with Tottenham Hotspur, but he scored his fifth goal of the qualifying campaign to secure a 3-2 victory for the ten-man hosts. Ivan Englaro scored his first two international goals for Luxembourg as the visitors nearly pulled an upset after Gadou’s sending off.

France are the fifth team to advance to the biennial competition via the qualification process. Germany will secure their place in the summer's tournament if they beat Georgia on Tuesday in Bielefeld.