The expression “final before the hour” is often used wrongly and through in major sports competitions. But there, when we compare the semi-final of the Spain-Hungary Women’s Eurobasket to this tantalizing clash between France and Belgium, there is clearly no comparison. This Saturday (8:45 p.m.), we will indeed be entitled to radiant “Belgian Cats”, in the last four of the Euro for the third time in the last four editions, facing the Blues of chronic regularity, with eight halves (including five finals) in a row on the continental stage. It will still be necessary this time to conclude, this weekend in Ljubljana (Slovenia), since the only gold medals for French women’s basketball date back to Euros 2001 and 2009.
And it is an understatement to say that there were hardly any lights of hope during a very sluggish group stage, despite the three successes in a row against Germany (58-50), Great Britain (63 -57) and Slovenia (73-68). “We flew over the preparation matches a bit and it’s never easy to enter a European championship, explained interior Marième Badiane on Thursday evening. We should not underestimate the hen we were in. It wasn’t necessarily very good, but we never doubted it, then in the quarters, we had more fun. »
The absence of Marine Johannès surprised
And how, the France team offered a recital of historic magnitude in a knockout match during the quarter-final against Montenegro (89-46). Like the trio Badiane (20 points)-Gruda (18 points)-Fauthoux (15 points), the entire squad was released at the best time, Thursday in Ljubljana. Returning to a victory that he describes as “reassuring but perhaps tricky”, coach Jean-Aimé Toupane specifies: “The whole team lacked confidence. There, the work that we have been putting in place for a month and a half is paying off”. A message which can refer, implicitly, to the so disputed choice, on its part and the French Basketball Federation, not to retain for this Euro Marine Johannès, because it was going to miss part of the preparation to be able to sign his WNBA contract in New York.
Moreover, when the tricolor rear Romane Bernies assures that this French team is full of “many talents in attack”, there was reason to doubt it in view of a first phase with less than 65 points scored on average, without its spectacular shooter Marine Johannès therefore, but also without her best scorer from the last World Cup Gabby Williams (not recovered in time from a concussion) nor the best hope of the last Euroleague season Pauline Astier (diminished by an ankle).
“It’s our moment”, loose Julie German
But that was until the fireworks against Montenegro, despite the package of Iliana Rupert, hit in the shoulder Monday and uncertain for this Saturday. “It takes a little weight off to say that we are always able to do this kind of thing in big matches, continues Romane Bernies. It’s reassuring before this big half. “Because it will be a completely different matter against a team that has been flying above the competition so far.
There master class is total for our Belgian neighbours: four wins in four games, the best attack in the competition (89.3 points on average!), the best marksmanship (52.8%), a mind-blowing beating on Thursday against Serbia, yet defending champion (93-53), and even the first triple-double in history a women’s Eurobasket, with Emma Meesseman in the quarter (15 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists). Third in 2017 and 2021, the “Belgian Cats” therefore see themselves conquering the first coronation in their history. Their brilliant leader Julie Allemand confirmed this on Friday in The Team.
We show another face, we show more serenity on the ground. We play with a lot of confidence. I feel like the previous campaigns were lessons. We tell ourselves that now is our time. We are afraid of no one. I am not afraid of France. »
This training rich in faces known to the followers of the French championship, between Lyonnaise Julie Allemand, Montpellier’s Julie Vanloo and Kyara Linskens, but also its French coach Rachid Meziane (finalist of LFB with Villeneuve d’Ascq), does almost the same steamroller impression that the American Dream Team on this Euro. “The Belgians have walked on water a bit since the start but we are ready”, indicates Marième Badiane. After all, there are fourteen years of frustration to erase by Sunday evening.