That they seemed far away, this Tuesday, the stifling series of shots on goal which concluded the round of 16 padlocked by the two big favorites of the tournament. Almost miraculously surviving Monday (at ten and with two posts suffered) from their clash against Nigeria (0-0, 4-2 on penalties), the English almost took the door to the World Cup like the Americans the day before (0-0, 4-5 on pens), and therefore like Canada, Brazil and Germany even earlier. No, on the side of French nerves, it’s been dead calm for ten days and Wendie Renard’s decisive helmet blow against Brazil (2-1, 83rd). Since then, Les Bleues have passed ten goals in two games, all while quietly managing playing time.
We naively thought that the competition was going to start in earnest with a trap match against the Moroccan sensation. Yeah, in just eight minutes (from the 16th to the 23rd), with two collective masterclasses and a winning pressing from Diani, Hervé Renard’s group was already safe (3-0), calmly thinking about the rest of the competition. “I really liked how we started the match and how we managed the pressure, because it is never easy to have this position, to have to prove again and again, noted Kenza Dali rightly, after scoring the second goal of this demonstration (4-0). I felt very liberated. It is up to us to repeat this kind of performance. »
“You shouldn’t have burning feet”
Sometimes ruthless, at other times (in the second period) clearly in management this Tuesday, the French women’s team showed a collective mastery clearly superior to its previous international adventures. The glass ceiling of the semi-finals at best (World 2011-OJ 2012-Euro 2022) proved to be predictable each time, where the rest of this World Cup seems open and exciting. Starting with this real poster against the Australians, facing nearly 50,000 supporters won over to their cause, Saturday (9 a.m.) in Brisbane. A change of world compared to the 13,557 spectators of the smallest stadium of the World Cup, this Tuesday in Adelaide.
“The atmosphere will be against us on Saturday, we must not have burning feet, smiles Kenza Dali. It’s going to be a game like against Brazil, with a full stadium against us. It’s up to us to be mentally strong because it’s going to come down to managing emotions and pressure.” In this sense, we can count on the conductor Hervé Renard, who has already teased his pre-match speech on Tuesday. : “Being an organizing country is a double-edged sword. The France team experienced it in 2019, it was a huge disappointment. We must make the host country experience what the French team has suffered at home”.
“Achieving the best performance in the history of the selection”
A relentless demonstration, as much as the impression of superiority which emerged from the eleven tricolor on Tuesday, despite the detrimental absence of Maëlle Lakrar (injured in Switzerland), who could return on Saturday. “I think we respected our opponent a bit too much today. In the first period, we were not necessarily there, ”regrets Moroccan striker Anissa Lahmari. It was however not the kind of Lionesses of the Atlas, after their two successes against South Korea (1-0) and Colombia (1-0).
Is the Hervé Renard effect felt for good in these knockout matches? After having praised the “seriousness” of his team, the former double winner of the CAN in any case hammered home his ambition +++, which was always taboo in French women’s football: “The objective is to achieve the best performance in the history of the selection [la demie de 2011 pour une Coupe du monde], so we must go further. That was the original goal, it hasn’t changed. France has already played a quarter of the World Cup, it knows the pain it causes not to continue on its way, we must use that”. Have you dressed up for Saturday’s shock too, without even realizing it?