Unbeaten since the 2019 World Cup, the French women’s team faces England in Caen this Friday evening. One of his biggest posters for two years. Dominating, the Blue opened the scoring thanks to Baltimore but the English play the blows and remain dangerous.
After the break, Asseyi signed a thunderous entry with a strike on the bar and a converted penalty to give Corinne Deacon’s players two goals (2-0, 62 ‘).
After the PCR tests, the field test! Deprived of Amandine Henry, Amel Majri, Wendie Renard, Delphine Cascarino and Sakina Karchaoui, all tested positive after the appearance of a cluster at OL, the French advance without benchmarks against the English, 6th in the world, before d ” welcome the double American world champions to Le Havre on Tuesday.
Among the Lyonnaises, traditional accustomed to the starting eleven of the Bleues, only Eugenie Le Sommer, already tested positive last month on the sidelines of the previous international gathering, was able to respond to the call of the coach Corinne Deacon despite the protests of Lyon President Jean -Michel Aulas who advocated caution.
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She joined her partners on Tuesday in their Clairefontaine training center, a day late to respect the compulsory isolation period as a “contact case”.
Will she be fit on Friday? The top scorer in the history of the France team will in any case not be captain as she may have been in the past in the absence of Henry. The armband will go to Marion Torrent, the defender of Montpellier, as Deacon announced Thursday without expanding, instilling doubt on the tenure or not of Le Sommer.
England, “a big caliber”
For Corinne Deacon, these absences will nevertheless be difficult to compensate, especially as the defender Estelle Cascarino, affected muscularly, also forfeited.
The coach will be satisfied that this situation did not arise during qualifying for Euro-2022 in the fall, but she will no doubt regret not being able to field her best eleven against one of the biggest nations faced since the World-2019 and elimination in the quarterfinals against the United States (2-1).
“It is the France team that will play on Friday, so, yes, that will allow us to gauge ourselves, because a national selection, it is always judged at the moment T. We will not look for each other excuse, ”said the technician on Thursday, a few minutes before receiving the results of the PCR tests carried out Thursday morning near Deauville (Calvados), which all turned out to be negative.
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Since the World Cup, the Habs have played 15 games, for 13 wins and two draws… A series of invincibility regularly put forward by Deacon to sweep away the criticisms of some players, mainly from Lyon, as to his management; and by the president of the Federation Noël Le Graët to defend the record of his technician.
But apart from a duel against the Dutch European champions (3-3) just before the confinement of March 2020, they did not have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the world elite.
England, host of the next Euro and qualified as a British selection for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer (unlike the Blue), is part of it, with its armada coming largely from Chelsea and Manchester City, the two behemoths of the “Women Super League”, the booming local championship.
“They have the objective of the Olympics and especially to win the Euro at home. It’s a big caliber, a team that has been building for several years, ”said Kenza Dali, West Ham player who particularly fears City winger Chloe Kelly, best assists in the Championship (11 assists) to AFP. for 7 goals).
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Not to mention Nikita Parris, the other Lyonnaise who escaped the Rhone cluster to join too late the selection led by the Norwegian interim Hege Riise, appointed mid-January for a temporary period to replace Phil Neville.
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