French youngsters pull clear

France's Pierre-Alain Frau (left) fights for control of the ball during Sunday's match against Greece Keystone

Sunday's under-21 European Championship football action in Switzerland saw wins for France and the Czech Republic in their respective Group B matches.

The French side notched up a 3-1 victory over Greece in Lausanne to all but guarantee themselves a place in the semi-finals with a game to spare.

The irrefutable man of the match was Pierre-Alain Frau, who scored two of the three goals to help his side on to victory.

Christos Patsatzoglou managed to pull a goal back for the Greeks in the final ten minutes of play but the gesture was too little too late for his team to make any further impact on the outcome of the match.

Triumphant Czechs

The Czech youngsters meanwhile defeated their Belgian rivals 1-0 in Geneva to take the match and deny their opponents a taste of victory.

The only goal of the match came courtesy of Martin Jiranek, who slammed the ball into the net in the 19th minute of play.

Buoyed by Sunday’s victory, the Czech Republic have now succeeded in reviving their hopes of reaching a second consecutive European under-21 final.

The tournament hosts will return to action on Monday, when the Swiss side will be looking to bounce back from their opening defeat against England.

Bernard Challandes’ Swiss youngsters are set to take on Portugal in Zurich, while England go head-to-head with defending champions Italy in Basel.

swissinfo with agencies