England and Serbia hope to pip France

Denmark may already be assured of their place in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-finals as Group A winners, but all three other teams can still join them when the section concludes on Monday.

Second-placed France, four points adrift, are facing Denmark in Novi Sad and know a win would take them through. Otherwise, either hosts Serbia or holders England, who meet in Indjija, can pip them with a win of their own. Should France lose and the others draw, they will be split first by goals scored between the three teams themselves then overall goal difference and goals scored as per the regulations.

Therefore, France coach Patrick Gonfalone has his fingers crossed that Thomas Frank's surprise package will take their foot off the pedal. "Denmark may be more relaxed, which could help us," he said. "But they are obviously a very good team as they showed against England and I hope we will find more solutions than today. I don't know how this competition will end."

Frank's delight at early qualification has left him with a quandary: rest his key men and risk losing momentum ahead of Thursday's Novi Sad encounter with the Group B runners-up or stick with the side which has performed so admirably so far? "I'm a very positive and optimistic person," he said. "I thought before that with victory against England we could give some of the reserves a chance of playing in the European Championship.

"Now I don't know – it's very difficult because if we don't play our best, France would have more of a chance to beat us and England have a problem qualifying for the semi-finals. It's difficult because we've won the group no matter what we do."

England, meanwhile, are without winger Raheem Sterling for the rest of the tournament because of an ankle injury. John Peacock is determined his players ignore events in Novi Sad and focus on their own task, with a FIFA U-17 World Cup slot at least ensured if they win. "Obviously we still have many things to play for," he said. "We haven't tasted defeat this year so we have to regroup. All our focus is on trying to beat Serbia and certainly qualifying for the world championship first and foremost.

"I can't fault my players – they've given me everything they've got and we just have to regroup and hopefully get them back playing well against a very good Serbian team."

Serbia must win in Indjija to go through but a draw would secure a World Cup berth unless France lose. "One point and the FIFA World Cup is the first goal," said home coach Milovan Djorić. "The best team in our group is certainly France. We will try to win our third game, but our first goal is Mexico.

"From the start you could see this was the strongest group. We are in a very interesting situation. I don't want to degrade Denmark but I personally think the weakest team are in first position. It will be a big battle between us and England on Monday. England are a very strong team but it's football so the better team doesn't always win. It won't be easy for us but it won't be easy for England either."