France qualified for the 2017 Men's U-20 World Cup as the winner of the 2016 UEFA U-19 European Championship. Italy lost the final of that tournament, 4-0.
There's only room for one of the top two teams out of UEFA qualifying in the quarterfinals. The heavy favorite is France, because of that 4-0 win in the final of the U-19 Euros and because the depth of its squad is well illustrated by the fact that most eye-catching individual performance by a French player in this tournament so far has come from a man who isn't necessarily going to start in the round of 16.