Point required for French to progress

By Andrew Haslam in Belfast

France are in pole position to advance from Group B to the UEFA European Under-19 Championship semi-finals, although all four teams in the section have realistic hopes of qualifying ahead of Saturday's third and final round of matches.

Draws required
Jean Gallice's side lead the section on four points, one more than Norway, with England third on two points and first-time finalists Armenia a point further behind. France therefore need only a draw from the concluding fixtures, while a point, and a French win, would also be enough for Norway to qualify. Victory for England against the Norwegians in Newry would guarantee progress while Armenia must defeat the French in Lurgan and hope there is a winner in Newry in order to reach the last four.

Gallice return
France have been coached by Philippe Bergeroo during the first two games, although Gallice is set to return to the touchline after serving a two-match suspension. He finds his team well placed to qualify, something his temporary replacement acknowledges was crucial. "Against Norway, it was most important to get a good result so that Jean can return with the team in a strong position," Bergeroo told uefa.com.

Eager to achieve
"I think we stepped up a level against Norway from the 1-1 draw against England in our first match," he went on. "This team wants to achieve something, but in this tournament there are lots of very good teams. Armenia are obviously a very good side, and we must show them lots of respect. Although we only need a draw, we cannot count on that. We have to play to our strengths, play to win and ensure we qualify from this section ourselves. Nothing is resolved yet."

Manucharyan pledge
Armenia captain Edgar Manucharyan says he and his team-mates are ready to give their all against the French, telling uefa.com: "This match is like our final, and we must show all our quality. We'll do everything to reach the semi-finals. We played France in the qualifying round and were winning 1-0 before losing 2-1. They are a very strong side, very well organised and have a number of good individuals in the team. We played much better against England than against Norway, so we hope to continue that improvement."

Skullerund confidence
Norway coach Tor Ole Skullerund bemoaned his side's defending in their 3-1 loss to France on Wednesday night, but feels his players can take plenty of positives from the game. "Apart from the goals, I think we matched France so that should give us confidence," he told uefa.com. "From what I've seen so far, we can feel confident we can go all the way here. We are underdogs and were wondering how good the other teams were. Now I can tell the players, and we've talked about it a lot and we've now convinced ourselves, that there's nothing here we need to fear. We can be offensive, optimistic and go for it."

Scoring touch required
England striker Ryan Jarvis is another who thinks his team have room for improvement, telling uefa.com: "The first couple of games have been quite difficult, but we feel we could have won them. They were always going to be tough, but in both we got ourselves in front and then gave away preventable goals. We had a lot of chances, particularly against Armenia, and we need to be more clinical and put away our chances. We've had so many opportunities to finish games off but haven't done it, so we've got to start putting the ball into the back of the net."