Ukraine vs France Prediction: Les Bleus to start as they mean to go on

Ukraine and France collide at Wroclaw Stadium on Friday (19:45 BST, Prime Video PPV) as they begin their Fifa World Cup qualifying campaigns. They are drawn in Group D with Iceland and Azerbaijan.

France will look to put their Uefa Nations League finals performance behind them as they start preparing for another chance to become world champions. Below you will find my Ukraine vs France predictions, aided by the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

There is an opportunity for two of Ukraine's defenders to reach 50 caps during this international break. Illia Zabarnyi will hit this milestone with an appearance against France, while Vitalii Mykolenko will need to feature against both France and Azerbaijan to hit half a century.

Ukraine are missing goalkeeper Andriy Lunin due to a back injury, so Anatoliy Trubin is set to fill in between the sticks.

Defender Oleksandr Tymchyk has also been forced to withdraw with an unspecified problem.

Georgiy Sudakov has recently joined Benfica, and this fixture will see how he handles the big occasion, while Artem Dovbyk will be eager to gain some confidence after being dropped by Roma at the start of the season.

Football Odds

William Saliba is absent for France due to the defender being forced off for Arsenal against Liverpool with an ankle injury inside the opening five minutes. Manchester City's Rayan Cherki also had to pull out of the squad due to a quadriceps tear - which is set to keep him sidelined for around two months.

He was replaced by forward Hugo Ekitike, who has started his Liverpool career in excellent fashion. He could be set to make his bow for Les Bleus this week, as well as fellow call-up Maghnes Akliouche.

Adrien Rabiot was named in Didier Deschamps' squad despite the nature of his exit from Marseille. Warren Zaire-Emery, Randal Kolo Muani and Matteo Guendouzi have been dropped from the squad that was chosen for the Uefa Nations League finals.

Ukraine vs France Odds

Ukraine have won three of their last five fixtures and they are 15/2 to get the better of France on Friday.

The last two meetings between the two teams have ended in 1-1 draws and the stalemate is marketed at 18/5 (implied probability of 21.7%) - while the correct scoreline is priced at 8/1.

France had won the previous two contests with Ukraine and they are the 2/5 favourites to prevail here.

Both teams have scored in the past three head-to-head clashes and BTTS is available at 11/10 on this occasion.

France forward Kylian Mbappe heads the anytime goalscorer market at 9/10, while Dovbyk is the shortest-priced player for Ukraine at 4/1.

France -1 handicap @ 11/10

France's squad depth is still something to be admired and they have some excellent players coming through now who can help them in their request to reclaim the World Cup trophy.

After having to settle for third place in the Nations League, you can only imagine Deschamps and his players will be fired up for this qualifying campaign to build momentum should they reach the World Cup finals next summer.

Ukraine have been a tricky opponent for them in recent meetings but the gulf in quality between the two squads on paper should also translate onto the pitch in my opinion.

Les Bleus have won six of their previous nine matches (in 90 minutes) heading into Friday, so they have already got plenty of momentum behind them. In five of them they have won by two clear goals and so I think covering them with a -1 handicap in Wroclaw could be a shrewd selection.

This has also been a successful bet in each of their last five triumphs over Ukraine in all competitions.

Michael Olise anytime goalscorer @ 21/10

Michael Olise provides that star quality that France need to put themselves back on top and the wide man is a player who I think is going to be a key figure for Les Bleus over the next 12 months.

He has made eight appearances for the senior team thus far, scoring twice in that time. With him likely to get bigger responsibility from Deschamps in the coming months, I believe Olise will record more goal contributions for his country.

The winger has started the season well with Bayern Munich, scoring three goals in two Bundesliga appearances to date in 2025/26. I think the confidence gained in Germany will set him up nicely for this international break.

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