A month after its elimination from the Euro, the French women’s team is back to school in very distant Estonia on September 2 (5 p.m.) in Tallinn. A meeting devoid of sporting challenge, without great adversity, but which marks a first step towards the 2023 World Cup.
Les Bleues’ flawless run in qualifying for the World Cup, with eight victories in eight matches, offered them an early ticket to Australia and New Zealand, where Les Bleues will once again pursue the tireless dream of a first trophy. The penultimate qualifying match, against the Estonians who were beaten 11-0 in the first leg, counts for nothing and it will be necessary to bet on the French women’s appetite for victories to make it interesting.
“There is no sporting issue but…”
“There is no sporting issue but our objective will be to remain undefeated”, to extend this “dynamic of victories over these qualifications”, launched coach Corinne Deacon when revealing her list of 23 players, significantly close of the group selected for the Euro. Only three changes have been made, all of them constrained by injuries. Captain Wendie Renard, injured in a calf, skips like star striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto, seriously injured in a knee this summer and subject to a long unavailability. Embarrassed in one thigh, the Lyon side or left winger Selma Bacha had to throw in the towel on the first day of the course.
The trip to Tallinn, four days before the reception of Greece in Sedan, therefore offers first and foremost an opportunity for the substitutes to show themselves in the eyes of Deacon, extended until the 2024 Olympics in Paris despite the elimination in Euro semi-final against Germany (2-1). In defense, the Parisian Elisa De Almeida especially will have a card to play, nine months after her fourteenth and last appearance in the tricolor tunic. The former Montpellier player is one of those who missed the Euro by a hair. The two other returnees from September, the Guingamp defender Grace Kazadi and the Reims striker Kessya Bussy, both 21, started from further away.
The misfortune and the absence of some making the happiness of others, the latter will have the opportunity “to show what they are capable of doing”, warned Deacon. Estonia, bottom of Group I with zero points, can allow them to shine at a lower cost, especially as playing time seems promised to them. “This Fifa window comes very early in the season, after a busy Euro, with clubs which resumed very early on like Paris FC, which was playing in the Champions League qualifications”, explained the boss of Les Bleues, promising to “do turn the workforce and preserve the organizations, especially those who have played the Euro and have had few vacations.
The situation will be different in October, when the season of World Cup preparation friendlies (July 20 – August 20, 2023) will begin with two prestigious opponents: Germany in Dresden and Sweden in Gothenburg.