Semi-finals: Belgium v France, Germany v Russia

Tuesday

Belgium v France (15.00CET, Burgas) – Eurosport 2
• Bob Browaeys gave his Belgium players the day off on Saturday as a reward for their penalty shoot-out triumph over Croatia the previous afternoon. The coach and his staff spent the evening in Stara Zagora watching France defeat Italy 3-0, a display that "really impressed" the Red Devils delegation. "It was the quarter-final with the biggest margin of victory," Browaeys told UEFA.com. "The other matches were close, but this was an outstanding performance by France.

"They play a very modern brand of football. All of the things that you have to develop in your players you can see in the France team. They defend well, they have good dribbling and passing skills, they are aggressive and their physical and mental condition is excellent – they are complete. Their defenders can play as strikers and their strikers as defenders. However, we will stick to our style and follow our principles."

• Jean-Claude Giuntini has rotated his France squad to good effect, Les Petits Bleus winning all of their finals fixtures without conceding a goal. That, he feels, made the difference against Italy. "Our third group match, versus Greece, was important because we decided to use five new players," said Giuntini, who presided over 2-0 and 5-0 friendly successes against Belgium in February. "Only four players have played [almost every minute of] all of our games at this tournament. That could explain why we were a bit fresher than Italy."

Germany v Russia (18.00, Stara Zagora) – Eurosport 1
• Germany have a clean bill of health for their fourth U17 semi-final in seven seasons. After the exertions of their shoot-out defeat of Spain on Friday, Christian Wück's players spent Sunday afternoon in the ancient Black Sea town of Nesebar, where they indulged in some shopping and dolphin watching.

Russia defeated holders England 1-0 Saturday, losing right-winger Dmitri Pletnev to a twisted ankle 12 minutes in and captain Georgi Makhatadze after the restart. "They made substitutions early and many players had cramp in the second half – they were very tired," said Wück. "We've had one more day of rest and recuperation so that could be an advantage. They were strong defensively against England. They are a good team with three or four very useful players, such as No13 [Yegor Denisov], who is great at holding up the ball."

• Two targets hit, one to go – that is how coach Mikhail Galaktionov views 2013 winners Russia's campaign. "We now try to achieve our third objective [winning the competition], having accomplished the first two [reaching the knockout stage and then qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup]," he said. "Germany are the absolute leaders of European youth football. Their system is very different from Russian schools, but this is a semi-final and at this stage small things can decide the result."

FIFA U-17 World Cup play-offs*
Croatia v Italy (16.00, Sozopol)
Spain v England (16.00, Sliven)

*UEFA has been allocated six berths in the FIFA event, which will go to the four semi-finalists and the winners of two play-offs involving beaten quarter-finalists.