France win but crash out: FIFA U-20 World Cup, Matchday 3

From Sávio to Salazar, a breakdown of six interesting prospects and their perfromances from MD3 of the U-20 World Cup

After 36 games crammed into nine days, the group stage of the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup is complete. It was a fun one, throwing up interesting match-ups in almost every group as well as a healthy dose of last-ditch drama.

France are out, as are Japan and Senegal. They’re the biggest scalps of this round – particularly the French, who only won one game (against Honduras on the last day) and failed to qualify as a best third-place team by virtue of scoring one less goal than an uninspiring Tunisia.

As predicted in our pre-tournament podcast preview, Group C proved to be the most competitive: both Japan and African champions Senegal were booted out by two sensational last-minute goals from Colombia and newcomers Israel respectively.

For more on the group stage (and the upcoming knockout rounds), Stephen Ganavas has put together a handy little review-cum-preview that will drop here later. For the time being, here are six players that impressed us in the final group stage games.