If they wanted to measure what still separates them from the European gratin, Blueberries have been served. For their penultimate preparation match for Euro Espoirs (June 21-July 8 in Romania and Georgia), the team led by Sylvain Ripoll was corrected this Saturday by England at the King Power Stadium in Leicester where his streak of 14 matches without defeat came to an abrupt end.
Nothing suggested such a scenario at the break (0-0) but Benoît Badiashile and his teammates did not manage to go the distance: surprised as soon as Emile Smith-Rowe resumed (50th), they completely collapsed in the last quarter of an hour under the effect of the English entrants. First Noni Madueke (77th), then Curtis Jones (79th) and finally Jacob Ramsey (86th) gave the English victory the appearance of a demonstration.
First selection for Nkounkou, A. Diouf, Barcola and Massengo
Despite the absences (Khephren Thuram, Maxence Caqueret, Adrien Truffert, Melvin Bard,…) and disparate states of form which led Ripoll to line up a new-look formation where Valentin Gendrey and Johann Lepenant were celebrating their first selection, it seemed there is room to do better: Michael Olise (23rd), Rayan Cherki (35th) and Manu Koné (42nd) had the opportunity to put the Bleuets in front before the break.
The way they then lost their footing will probably give food for thought to their coach who also took advantage of this friendly match to offer their first cap to Niels Nkounkou (64th), Andy Diouf, Bradley Barcola (74th) and Han-Noah Massengo ( 81st).
The catch-up session is scheduled for Tuesday against another behemoth, Spain. In the interest of the Bleuets, it would be preferable that this last preparation match does not give birth to a new beating so as not to let doubt interfere.