Diminished by multiple absences, the France team receives the poorly rated Estonia on Friday (9:10 p.m.) in Créteil in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup, the opportunity for Corinne Deacon to “prepare” for Euro-2022 by continuing her review workforce.
Les Bleues will not have to force against the 105th team in the Fifa rankings, ranked between the Cook Islands and Lithuania, unable to score a single goal in eight official matches played in 2020 and 2021, and to whom they inflicted the worst defeat in its history (12-0) twelve years ago in Le Havre.
“What will count for us is to start the match well, to be efficient and to get these three points to continue our journey,” said coach Corinne Deacon on Thursday, anxious to “not underestimate any opponent”.
The message was heard in the locker room, especially on the side of Aïssatou Tounkara. “Each team has strengths”, develops the defender. “It’s up to us to make the game easy and, regardless of the level of the opponent, put in place what we worked on during the week at Clairefontaine.”
At the Dominique-Duvauchelle stadium, where 4,000 spectators are expected, the Atlético Madrid player should honor her 26th selection and, at 26, serve as a frame in a tricolor team still orphaned by several outstanding figures, injured or not summoned.
Absent executives
The coach has again passed the experienced Amandine Henry and Eugenie Le Sommer, by choice, and must deal with the forfeit on injury of other Lyonnaises Griedge Mbock, Amel Majri and Wendie Renard, to whom she gave back the captain’s armband on last month.
“We are constantly adapting,” says Deacon. “We must find other things, other automatisms, other combinations, other formulas, so as not to be in difficulty” when usual holders are missing.
Paris midfielder SG Kheira Hamraoui (31 years old, 36 caps), recalled after two and a half years of absence, was also forced to throw in the towel on the first day of the rally, hit in a calf.
In this context, Deacon will be able to take advantage of the reception in Estonia, then the distant trip to Kazakhstan on Tuesday, to observe internationals with little or no cap.
“Today some players lack experience, but if we do not give them playing time they will never gain it. It might also be a good time to launch a few youngsters, I am in favor of it” , she said when unveiling her list.
“Nothing is frozen”
Hawa Cissoko (24 years old, 2 sel.), The defender of West Ham summoned in April 2019 for the last time, is thus in the starting blocks, like the Remoises Naomie Feller (19 years old, first convocation) and Kessya Bussy (20 years old, 2 sel.), second top scorer in the French Championship behind Parisian Marie-Antoinette Katoto.
“There is still a certain hierarchy but, like the principle of selection, nothing is set in stone, anything can happen”, assured Deacon, questioned on the possibility offered to the news to gain a place of holder.
“The idea is that each player who arrives or returns appropriates the game project very quickly to put her talent and experience at the service of the France team”, sums up the technician, recalling the “double” objective des Bleues: “both qualify for the World Cup and prepare for the European Championship next July”.
After its initial successes in Greece (10-0) and Slovenia (3-2), the France team occupies first place in its group tied on points with Wales. Estonia and Kazakhstan bring up the rear after two defeats.
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