After the fireworks against Italy (5-1), France can celebrate the National Day with a qualification for the quarter-finals of the Women’s Euro, from this Thursday (9:00 p.m.) by beating Belgium.
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Published on July 14, 2022 at 3:27 p.m.,
updated on July 14, 2022 at 3:58 p.m.
On the pitch, the calculation is simple: a victory in Rotherham against the “Red Flames”, the lowest-rated opponent in their group, would allow Les Bleues to join the top 8, like England and Germany, even before their last game against Iceland. And if their Italian victims, crunched 5-1 on Sunday, did not lose against the Icelanders on Thursday, first place in Group D would already be assured. Finishing at the top of the group theoretically ensures a more accessible table.
“We are like on the eve of the first game: focused, determined and applied“, assured Wednesday the captain Wendie Renard.What I especially want to see again are goals“, launched coach Corinne Deacon, satisfied with the “state of mind” of her players who “fight”. So far, all the lights are green for France, launched like a hurricane in this European Championship and preserved from any injury among its workforce, yet not spared from these inconveniences before the start of the tournament.
Wendie Renard (quadriceps) and Sakina Karchaoui (thigh) overcame their physical glitches to launch their Euro perfectly, Grace Geyoro swept away the memory of her sprained knee with a hat-trick against Azzurre and Kadidiatou Diani, despite twisting her ankle, feasted on her right wing. Wednesday afternoon, training took place in the presence of the 23 players, the day after a tactical implementation which suggests a starting lineup similar to that chosen against Italy.
Deacon had pent up joy after the initial success, like her players. But she was more relaxed and talkative than usual, as if freed from a weight. Its president Noël Le Graët has something to do with it. The boss of the French Football Federation made sure to ease the pressure around the one he named in August 2017, after the Euro missed by Olivier Echouafni’s Bleues. His contract, which expires after the July 31 final, “will surely be renewed, until the end of the World Cup at least“next summer, indicated the leader on France 2 last week.
Les Bleues have four players from overseas: Wendie Renard (Martinique), Melvine Malard (Reunion), Delphine Cascarino and Sandy Baltimore (Guadeloupe).