Moussa Dembele was the hero for France as they won a second successive match and boosted their chances of making it to the semi-finals of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
The former Hoops striker, who departed for £18million last summer, scored the only goal as his country beat Filip Benkovic’s Croatia to take them onto six points. The result meant that the Croats are out of the tournament alongside England who lost 4-2 to Romania earlier in the day.
It’s now between the French and the Romanians to fight it out for one automatic place in the semi-finals. They face each other in Cesena on Monday.
Celtic involvement
There were three players with Celtic connections involved in Friday’s clash between France and Croatia. Benkovic was an unused substitute for his side after a dismal opening display in a 4-1 defeat by Romania.
Dembele played the entire match up front for the French while compatriot Olivier Ntcham played 65 minutes. The midfielder had a pretty decent game as an attacking midfielder before being replaced by Houssem Aouar.
It will be interesting to see if Ntcham’s continued involvement in the French team paves the way for a move away from Celtic this summer. The 23-year-old seems like a different player when he’s wearing the blue of his country. If the club can get decent money for him then he should be moved on.
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