The consecration of the band to Eric Cantona and Laurent Blanc continues to move away. Who indeed remembers a triumphant French team during a Euro Espoirs, in May 1988 in Besançon? Unable to reach the final of the competition for twenty years, or even to pass even one round at the Olympic Games over the same period, the Bleuets still experienced terrible disappointment on Sunday evening, being eliminated from the quarter-finals by Ukraine (1-3) in Cluj (Romania). Even when everything is looking good, with three wins in group and therefore a first place in the key, as well as a quick opener from Rayan Cherki (1-0, 19th), everything can quickly collapse.
A penalty conceded by Pierre Kalulu (1-1, 32nd) and a disastrous line-up by Niels Nkounkou and Castello Lukeba (1-2, 44th) for a brace from Soudakov, and the French team already found themselves trailing behind half-time, before being completed by Bondarenko, author of a good sequence in front of Lukeba and Chevalier (1-3, 86th). “I’m disappointed because there was room, regretted the Lille goalkeeper after the meeting. We are very talented, but there are certain points where we fail and we cannot compensate. Given the situation in their country, maybe the Ukrainians were more angry than us. It was a fighting team. We were too, but perhaps less than them. »
Sylvain Ripoll necessarily in the hot seat
The captain of these Espoirs Maxence Caqueret was just as disappointed, at the microphone of beIN SPORTS: “We did not do everything necessary to win this match. I think we had this game in our hands at 1-0. We made mistakes and we take our responsibilities. Those of Sylvain Ripoll are also clearly on the front line, after six years without doing better than a semi-final at Euro 2019, despite generations of very talented players available.
“The minimum objective that had been set for me was the semi-finals, explains the coach. Factually, we are not in the nails. Tonight, it’s incomprehensible to come back behind at half-time. We managed to beat Ukraine in the first half and there are two errors that ruin everything. We missed our chance. My future is not the subject of the evening, I know that it will arrive quickly enough. “Difficult to understand, one year before the Paris Olympics, how the former Lorient coach could remain at the head of this selection.