French women's national soccer team / European championships

France
France

European Championship record scorer:	Marinette Pichon and Angélique Roujas (4 each)
European Championship record player:	Sandrine Soubeyrand (17)
Rank:	5
Balance sheet
21 European Championship games 8 wins 7 draws 6 defeats 29:29 goals
statistics
First European Championship game France 1-1 Spain Karlskoga ( SWE ); June 29, 1997
Biggest European Championship victory France 3-0 England Linköping ( SWE ); 18th July 2013
Biggest European Championship defeat France 1: 5 Germany Tampere ( FIN ); August 27, 2009
successes
European Championship
Participation in the finals	6 ( first : 1997 )
Best results	Quarter-finals ( 2009 , 2013 , 2017 )
Best results in the countries where the UEFA European Football Championships are held
(As of July 30, 2017)

The article contains a detailed description of the French national football team for women in European championships and the qualifications for them. France always took part in the qualification, but was able to qualify for the first time for the finals in 1997, but since then always and took part in the finals six times. France has not yet won a title. France had already participated in the unofficial European Championship in 1979, but was eliminated there in the group stage.

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1984	no finals	not qualified	-	-		In the qualification of Italy failed
1987	Norway	not qualified	-	-		In the qualification of defending champion Sweden failed
1989	Germany	not qualified	-	-		In the qualifying quarter-finals at Italy failed
1991	Denmark	not qualified	-	-		In the qualification of Sweden failed, but which also could not qualify.
1993	Italy	not qualified	-	-		In the qualification of Denmark failed
1995	no finals	not qualified	-	-		In the qualification of Italy failed
1997	Norway / Sweden	Preliminary round	Russia , Sweden , Spain	-	Aimé Mignot	Retired as third party
2001	Germany	Preliminary round	Denmark , Italy , Norway	-	Elisabeth Loisel	Eliminated as last group
2005	England	Preliminary round	Germany , Italy , Norway	-	Elisabeth Loisel	Retired as third party
2009	Finland	Quarter finals	Netherlands	-	Bruno Bini	Defeat on penalties
2013	Sweden	Quarter finals	Denmark	-	Bruno Bini	Defeat on penalties
2017	Netherlands	Quarter finals	England	-	Olivier Echouafni	Opponents in the group stage were Iceland , Austria and Switzerland .

The tournaments

EM 1984

Only 16 teams had registered for the first European Championship and the qualification groups were divided according to geographic criteria. The French team therefore had to play against Italy , Switzerland and Portugal in qualifying . France started qualifying on October 30, 1982 with a 1-0 win against Italy, with Isabelle Musset scoring the first competitive goal. In the second game in Portugal, the French did not concede a goal, but could not score one themselves. The second leg, however, was won 2-0. This was followed by a defeat against Italy and two draws against the Swiss, which made France only runner-up in the group. Since only the first in the group qualified for the final round, the EM was over for France. With three goals, Musset was the French women’s top scorer.

EM 1987 in Norway

Ten months after the finals of the previous European Championship, France began qualifying for the next European Championship, for which only 16 teams had registered again. This time, no geographical allocation was made. France therefore faced defending champions Sweden , the Netherlands and their neighbors Belgium , against whom they won their only home game. The other games were lost and so only the last place was taken. Group winners Sweden then lost the title to their neighbors in Norway.

EM 1989 in Germany

Qualification for the next finals began just three months after the final. France met Belgium again in the only group of five, then Spain and for the first time Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria . The French won four games and drew four times. They were equal on points and goals against the Czechoslovaks, against whom they had drawn twice, but had scored four more goals and were therefore group winners. In the quarter-finals, which were held for the first time, Italy was stronger again in two games, so that the final round was again missed. Italy then finished fourth in the finals. With five goals, Isabelle Musset was again the best French goalscorer.

EM 1991 in Denmark

In qualifying for the following European Championship finals, the French met Sweden, against which both games were lost, and Poland, against which both games were won. That put them in second place as Sweden won all games. Because only the winners of the groups of three reached the quarter-finals, France's qualification was over and the first official World Cup was missed. Sweden then failed in the quarter-finals due to the away goals rule against Italy, which finished fourth again in the finals. Françoise Jézéquel and Régine Mismacq were the top French goalscorers this time with two goals each.

EM 1993 in Italy

23 teams have already participated in the qualification for the following European Championship. To qualify for the quarter-finals, France had to play against Denmark and Finland in the group stage . France only won the home game against Finland and drew with the Finns, but lost both games against The Danes, who then knocked out Sweden as group winners in the quarter-finals and came third in the finals. Sandrine Fusier was the most successful French goalscorer this time with two goals, scoring 5-1 in the last game against Finland.

EM 1995

Fourteen days before Christmas 1993, France was one of 29 teams to qualify for the next European Championship, which was held again and for the last time without a final round. France met Italy again, as well as Portugal and Scotland . France started with a 2-0 defeat in Italy, then won three games without conceding, but only achieved a 1-1 draw in their home game against Italy. But since Italy lost their last home game against Portugal while France won in Scotland, both ended up tied. The Italians had the better goal difference and were group winners, but then failed in the quarter-finals to defending champions Norway, who could not defend the title either. France was second but also missed the second World Cup in Sweden . With three goals, Emmanuelle Sykora was the French women's top scorer.

European Championship 1997 in Norway and Sweden

Just six months after the final, the qualification for the next European Championship finals began for which 34 teams had already registered and which was held for the first time with eight teams. Due to the different strengths of the teams entered, the qualification was divided into two categories. The 16 strongest teams, including France, played for the direct qualification, the 18 weaker teams for the opportunity to play in the next qualification in the higher category. France met the Netherlands, Russia and, for the first time, Iceland . France started with a draw each against the three group opponents, then won in the Netherlands, but lost their home game against Russia. With a 3-0 win against Iceland, second place was secured. In this qualifying round, the runners-up were able to qualify for the finals for the first time in playoff games against a third-placed group. France met Finland , won both games and qualified for the finals for the first time. The 20-year-old record goal scorer Marinette Pichon , who scored seven goals, played a major role in the qualification .

At the finals, the French met Spain in their first final match and fell 0-1 in the 14th minute. In the 50th minute, however, Angélique Roujas was able to equalize with the first final goal for France. It stayed that way until the end. In the second game, qualifying opponents Russia were the opponents and with three goals Roujas ensured the French women’s first final victory. However, a 3-0 defeat followed against co-hosts Sweden. France and Spain were tied on points, but the Iberians had the better goal difference, so that they moved into the semi-finals as second in the group, where they lost to Italy as well as group winners Sweden in the other semi-final against defending champions Germany. With her four goals Roujas was together with the Italian Carolina Morace and the Norwegian Marianne Pettersen the top scorer of the tournament.

EM 2001 in Germany

In qualifying for the 2001 European Championships, the French played again in the higher category and this time met three old friends: Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands. France started with two draws in Sweden and the Netherlands, but then won the remaining games and became group winners. This was the first time that the French women qualified directly for the finals. With three goals, captain Corinne Diacre was this time the most successful goalscorer for France in qualifying.

In the finals they lost their first game against Olympic champion Norway 3-0. In the second game against Denmark they were already 2-0 down after 18 minutes, but record goal scorer Marinette Pichon and Stéphanie Mugneret-Béghé were able to equalize in the first half. It stayed that way before things got turbulent again in the closing stages: the Danes took the lead again in the 70th minute, which Gaëlle Blouin was able to equalize eight minutes later, who had been substituted on a minute earlier. Denmark scored the last goal in the 83rd minute. The French were eliminated before the last game, but they still won it 2-0 against Italy, which meant that Italy was eliminated in third place, as they had the worse goal difference compared to the Norwegians. With two goals, Marinette Pichon, who was not used in the qualification, was the top scorer for the French women in the finals.

EM 2005 in England

For the EM 2005 the host was determined in advance for the first time and England was awarded the contract for the event. France had to play in one of four groups of five against Russia, Iceland, Hungary and Poland in qualifying . France also started thanks to Marinette Pichon , who was the second best scorer in the qualification with 13 goals with six wins and was thus already qualified for the finals before the last two games. Then the only defeat in the last home game against Russia could be coped with. The qualification was then concluded with a 5-1 win in Poland. The Russians then failed in the playoffs to Finland, which was only third in its group and thus qualified for the finals for the first time.

At the finals, they met Italy in the first group game and scored three goals in the first half hour. Since Italy only conceded one goal, France won 3-1. The 18-year-old Élodie Thomis came on in the 72nd minute for her first international match. In the second game against Norway they could not defend a 1-0 lead and had to be content with a 1-1. With a 0: 3 against defending champion Germany they were only third, equal on points with Norway but the worse goal difference. Germany then reached the final and was able to defend its title. With two goals, Marinette Pichon was again the best French goalscorer in the finals.

EM 2009 in Finland

The 2009 European Championship took place in Finland and for the first time twelve teams took part in the tournament. The qualification mode has also been changed. Only the 20 weakest national teams contested the first qualifying round. France did not have to intervene until the second round and met Iceland and Greece in a group of five and Serbia and Slovenia for the first time. In 2006 record goal scorer Marinette Pichon , who had played a key role in the success of previous qualifications, ended her career after 112 international matches. But there were new players ready to follow in their footsteps. The French then only lost the game in Iceland (0: 1), but won - sometimes high - all other games. But they were only able to qualify as group winners in the last game with a 2-1 win against Iceland. With 31 goals they scored the second most goals together with Sweden - only Germany scored three more goals. A total of 13 players entered the goalscorer list, most often Camille Abily with five and Élodie Thomis with four goals. Iceland then prevailed against Ireland in the playoffs, while Slovenia, fourth-best third in the group, failed against Ukraine, which like Iceland qualified for the first time.

In the finals, France and Iceland met again in the first group match and France won thanks to two converted penalty kicks 3-1 after 0-1 deficit, which they had to accept in the sixth minute. In the second game, however, the French fell against defending champions Germany with 1: 5 under the wheels. Since the third opponent Norway had lost 4-0 to Germany at the start and could only win 1-0 against Iceland, a draw against the ex-European champions was enough for the French to move into the knockout round. Since a draw was enough for the Norwegians to overtake Denmark in the group third, both were content with this result, which didn't hurt anybody. In the quarter-finals, EM newcomer Netherlands was the opponent. Both teams failed to score in 120 minutes, so the penalty shoot-out had to decide. Here the Dutch had the slightly better shooters, because three out of seven French women shot at the post or over the goal, while with the Dutch women only one shot next to the goal and one failed to Celine Deville . However, the Dutch lost in the semi-finals after extra time against England, which suffered their highest defeat in the final (2: 6 against Germany). Camille Abily was also France's top scorer in the finals with two goals.

EM 2013 in Sweden

The EM 2013 took place for the second time in Sweden . As four years before, the qualification was started by the weaker teams, but this time only by the eight weakest teams. France did not have to intervene until the second round and was set as the group head at the draw. Opponents were Scotland , Wales and Ireland and, for the first time, Israel . France won all eight games and qualified for the finals early. France scored the most goals of all teams in groups of five and was the only team without a point loss. Eleven French women entered the list of goalscorers, with Eugénie Le Sommer (7), Marie-Laure Delie (6) and Gaëtane Thiney (5) contributing the most goals . The second-placed Scottish women failed in the playoffs of the group runners-up with a last-minute goal to Spain, which was able to qualify for the first time since 1997.

France went into the finals as one of the favorites and was able to impressively confirm this role in the group matches. The three group opponents England, Russia and Spain were defeated, making France the only team with three wins in the quarter-finals. There, too, the French were favored against Denmark, which had only reached the knockout round as third in the group. However, the French needed a penalty converted by Louisa Nécib to compensate for the early lead of the Danish women. Because neither of them managed to score in regular time and in extra time, the penalty shoot-out had to decide, as four years earlier. Since both goalkeepers were able to save a penalty, but Sabrina Delannoy also only hit the post, the favorite was eliminated. Denmark then had to go to penalties again in the semifinals against Norway, but lost this time. Norway then lost 1-0 to Germany in the final and failed to convert two penalties. Marie-Laure Delie , Eugénie Le Sommer , Louisa Nécib and Wendie Renard were successful with two goals each for France and ended up in third place on the list of goalscorers along with eight other players . With the quarter-finals, Bruno Bini's tenure as national coach ended after 99 internationals under his leadership and record national player Sandrine Soubeyrand ended her national team career. She had previously been used in all European Championship finals for the French and had made a total of 198 internationals.

EM 2017 in the Netherlands

France had also applied to host the 2017 European Championship , but the Netherlands was awarded the contract . For the first time the final round took place with 16 teams. France was set as the group head in the qualifying draw and met Romania , Greece , Ukraine and, for the first time, Albania . The French immediately topped the table with two 3-0 wins against Romania and Ukraine. In the subsequent 6-0 win in Albania, Eugénie Le Sommer was the fourth French woman to score her 50th international goal . Since the following three games were also won and Ukraine only played a draw in their first game against Romania, the French qualified as the first team for the finals on April 11, 2016. The last games have also been won and, alongside defending champions Germany, the French were the only team to qualify without conceding a goal.

For the draw for the final groups on November 8, 2016, the French women were assigned to Pot 1, which meant that they could neither meet hosts Netherlands nor defending champions Germany in the group stage. France was drawn as the group head of group C. Opponents were Iceland and the two newcomers Switzerland and Austria. At the start, the French achieved a difficult 1-0 victory, which was only achieved by a penalty converted by Eugénie Le Sommer in the 86th minute. Against the Austrians they fell behind in the 27th minute, which lasted until the second half. Amandine Henry scored the equalizer in the 57th minute . It stayed that way until the end, so that the French gave up a point against Austria for the first time. In the last group game against Switzerland they needed a draw to reach the knockout round, but fell behind in the 19th minute. Two minutes earlier, Eve Périsset had received the red card after an emergency brake . In the 76th minute, however, Camille Abily profited from a mistake by the Swiss goalkeeper in a directly converted free kick and scored the equalizer. Ten French women then defended the draw against eleven Swiss women who needed a win to advance. As group runner-up, they then met England in the quarter-finals and, in addition to Périsset, had to do without captain Wendie Renard , who had received the second yellow card against Switzerland . After a goalless 59 minutes, Jodie Taylor , the tournament's top scorer, scored the only goal of the game with her fifth tournament goal and France were eliminated in the quarter-finals as in the two previous appearances. After the European Championship, Camille Abily and Élodie Thomis resigned and national coach Olivier Echouafni was replaced after only 15 games four weeks later by the 121-time and former record national player Corinne Diacre .

statistics

Players with the most appearances at European Championships

Games	player	Year (games)
17th	Sandrine Soubeyrand	1997 (3), 2001 (3), 2005 (3), 2009 (4), 2013 (4)
14th	Camille Abily	2005 (2), 2009 (4), 2013 (4), 2017 (4)
13	Sarah Bouhaddi	2005 (3), 2009 (3), 2013 (3), 2017 (4)
12	Élise Bussaglia	2005 (3), 2009 (3), 2013 (4), 2017 (2)
	Laura Georges	2005 (3), 2009 (4), 2013 (3), 2017 (2)
	Eugénie Le Sommer	2009 (4), 2013 (4), 2017 (4)
	Élodie Thomis	2005 (2), 2009 (4), 2013 (4), 2017 (2)
11	Gaëtane Thiney	2009 (3), 2013 (4), 2017 (3)
9	Sonia Bompastor	2001 (3), 2005 (2), 2009 (4)
	Candie Herbert	1997 (3), 2001 (3), 2005 (1), 2009 (2)
	Stéphanie Mugneret-Béghé	1997 (3), 2001 (3), 2005 (3)
	Louisa Nécib	2005 (1), 2009 (4), 2013 (4)
	Marinette Pichon	1997 (3), 2001 (3), 2005 (3)
8th	Corinne Diacre	1997 (3), 2001 (2), 2005 (3)

As of July 30, 2017

Players with the most goals at European Championships

Gates	player	Year (goals)
4th	Marinette Pichon	1997 (0), 2001 (2), 2005 (2)
	Angélique Roujas	1997 (4), 2001 (0)
3	Camille Abily	2005 (0), 2009 (2), 2013 (0), 2017 (1)
	Eugénie Le Sommer	2009 (0), 2013 (2), 2017 (1)
	Louisa Nécib	2005 (0), 2009 (1), 2013 (2)
2	Marie-Laure Delie	2013 (2), 2017 (0)
	Wendie Renard	2013 (2), 2017 (0)
1	7 players

As of July 26, 2017

Finals games

Karlskoga Karlstad (2) Reutlingen Ulm (2) Warrington Preston Helsinki Tampere (3) Norrkoping (2) Linkoping (2) Tilburg Breda Utrecht Deventer

Venues (green = positive balance, yellow = balanced balance, red = negative balance, number in brackets = number of games, if> 1)

The French have played 21 final round games so far, eight of which have been won, seven have ended in a draw and six have been lost. Two games had to be extended and were lost on penalties. The French played once against the hosts and twice against the defending champions. The most frequent opponent was Norway (3 games).

No.	date	Result	opponent	venue	occasion	comment
1	June 29, 1997	1: 1	Spain	Karlskoga ( SWE )	Group game
2	0July 2, 1997	3: 1	Russia	Karlstad ( SWE )	Group game
3	05th July 1997	0: 3	Sweden	Karlstad ( SWE )	Group game
4th	June 25, 2001	0: 3	Norway	Ulm ( GER )	Group game
5	June 28, 2001	3: 4	Denmark	Reutlingen ( GER )	Group game
6th	0July 1, 2001	2-0	Italy	Ulm ( GER )	Group game
7th	0June 6, 2005	3: 1	Italy	Preston ( ENG )	Group game
8th	0June 9, 2005	1: 1	Norway	Warrington ( ENG )	Group game
9	June 12, 2005	0: 3	Germany *	Warrington ( ENG )	Group game	121st and last international game by Corinne Diacre 115th and last international game by Stéphanie Mugneret-Béghé
10	Aug 24, 2009	3: 1	Iceland	Tampere ( FIN )	Group game
11	Aug 27, 2009	1: 5	Germany *	Tampere ( FIN )	Group game
12	Aug 30, 2009	1: 1	Norway	Helsinki ( FIN )	Group game
13	03rd Sep 2009	0: 0; 4: 5 i. E.	Netherlands	Tampere ( FIN )	Quarter finals
14th	12th of July 2013	3: 1	Russia	Norrkoping ( SWE )	Group game
15th	15th July 2013	1-0	Spain	Norrkoping ( SWE )	Group game
16	18th July 2013	3-0	England	Linköping ( SWE )	Group game	100th international match by Louisa Nécib
17th	22. July 2013	1: 1 n.V., 2: 4 i. E.	Denmark	Linköping ( SWE )	Quarter finals	Last international game under Bruno Bini , 198th and last game by record international Sandrine Soubeyrand
18th	18th July 2017	1-0	Iceland	Tilburg ( NLD )	Group game
19th	July 22, 2017	1: 1	Austria	Utrecht ( NLD )	Group game	First loss of points against Austria
20th	July 26, 2017	1: 1	Switzerland	Breda ( NLD )	Group game
21st	July 30, 2017	0: 1	England	Deventer ( NLD )	Quarter finals	First loss to England since 1974

Notes: The team in bold went into the tournament as the defending champion, the team marked with "*" was world champion.

Records

• France once provided the top scorer: Angélique Roujas (4 goals in 1997 together with 2 other players)
• At 39 years and 340 days at the EM 2013, the Frenchwoman Sandrine Soubeyrand was the oldest player ever to have played in an EM finals.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ inofficial European Women Championship 1979
2. ↑ In the match reports of the FFF Élisabeth Loisel is named as trainer.
3. ↑ France - Denmark 3: 4
4. ↑ France Italie 3: 1
5. ↑ Joker, top performers and jubilation in Africa. In: fifa.com. FIFA , July 24, 2013, accessed July 24, 2013 .