European Women's Football Championship 2013 / France

This article covers the French women's national football team at the 2013 European Championship in Sweden. The French women take part in an EM for the sixth time; her best result so far was a quarter-finals in 2009 .

qualification

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	France	8th	8th	0	0	32: 02	24
2	Scotland	8th	5	1	2	21:12	16
3	Wales	8th	3	1	4th	12:14	10
4th	Ireland	8th	3	0	5	08:11	09
5	Israel	8th	0	0	8th	01:35	00

see also the main article European Women's Football Championship 2013 / Qualification

The French women won all of their eight games in Europe group 4 and qualified directly for the finals:

Scotland - France 0: 5 and 2: 0
France - Wales 4: 0 and 4: 1
France - Ireland 4: 0 and 3: 1
Israel - France 0: 5 and 0: 5

The 32 goals of the Bleues in this qualification score: Eugénie Le Sommer (7), Gaëtane Thiney and Marie-Laure Delie (5 each), Élodie Thomis (4), Camille Abily and Louisa Nécib (2 each) and Sonia Bompastor , Corine Franco , Julie Morel , Wendie Renard and Léa Rubio (1 each); there were also two own goals by the Scottish woman Ifeoma Dieke and the Israeli Oshrat Eini .

preparation

From October 2012 to April 2013, the French had only drawn seven in seven international matches, including twice against Germany and Brazil . In the immediate preparatory phase before the start of the finals, they played three preparatory friendly matches in front of their own audience: on June 1 against Finland (3-0), on June 29 against Norway (1-0) - France could face both opponents again in the European Championship finals meet - and on July 6 against Australia (0-2).

Contingent

For the finals, coach Bruno Bini has, as usual, relied on building blocks from the four top clubs in Division 1 Féminine in his 23-player squad . There are nine women from Lyon, six each from Paris and Juvisy and two from Montpellier. In addition, Bini had named six players who can step in at short notice if one of the "first 23" fails due to injury: the two goalkeepers Méline Gérard ( AS Saint-Étienne ) and Laëtitia Philippe (HSC Montpellier), defender Annaïg Butel (Juvisy FCF) and the attacking Viviane Asseyi (HSC Montpellier), Laura Bouillot ( FF Yzeure Allier Auvergne ) and Marina Makanza (HSC Montpellier). Of these "reservists", Asseyi replaced striker Laëtitia Tonazzi before the start of the finals , who had a negative medical prognosis for getting fit again in time. On the other hand, as during the entire international season 2012/13, Bini refrained from nominating the experienced Lyons Sonia Bompastor for Sweden .

Four French women (Élise Bussaglia, Camille Abily, Laura Georges and Sandrine Soubeyrand) had already completed more than 100 senior internationals. With Louisa Nécib a fifth in Sweden joined the " 100 club ". Coach Bini was also close to reaching this number; however, France would have had to reach the semi-finals for this.

The average age of the 23 players at the start of the tournament was 26 years and eleven months. The youngest member of the squad is 19-year-old Viviane Asseyi, who at the time of her subsequent nomination was still without an A international; Sandrine Soubeyrand, the record international of the Bleues, is more than twice as old : she is celebrating her 40th birthday three weeks after the end of the tournament.

No.	Surname	Association (a)	Internationals (goals) (b)0	birthday	Sp.	One time (c)	Gates
Goalkeepers
21st	Karima Benameur	Paris Saint-Germain	002 0(0)	04/13/1989	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Sarah Bouhaddi	Olympique Lyon	067 0(0)	10/17/1986	3	300	0	0	0	0
1	Celine Deville	Juvisy FCF	058 0(0)	01/24/1982	1	90	0	0	0	0
Defenders
3	Laure Boulleau	Paris Saint-Germain	039 0(0)	10/22/1986	3	300	0	0	0	0
22nd	Sabrina Delannoy	Paris Saint-Germain	005 0(0)	05/18/1986	2	154	0	0	0	0
7th	Corine Franco	Olympique Lyon	081 (11)	05/10/1983	4th	390	0	0	0	0
4th	Laura Georges	Paris Saint-Germain	136 0(5)	08/20/1984	3	236	0	0	0	0
15th	Jessica Houara	Paris Saint-Germain	007 0(0)	09/29/1987	1	90	0	0	0	0
5	Ophélie Meilleroux	HSC Montpellier	067 0(0)	01/18/1984	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Wendie Renard	Olympique Lyon	036 0(6)	07/20/1990	4th	390	2	1	0	0
11	Julie Soyer	Juvisy FCF	006 0(0)	06/30/1985	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midfielders
23	Camille Abily	Olympique Lyon	116 (23)	05.12.1984	4th	345	0	0	0	0
8th	Élise Bussaglia	Olympique Lyon	111 (20)	09/24/1985	4th	345	0	0	0	0
13	Camille Catala	Juvisy FCF	018 0(2)	05/06/1991	2	45	0	0	0	0
10	Amandine Henry	Olympique Lyon	013 0(1)	09/28/1989	1	60	0	0	0	0
14th	Louisa Nécib	Olympique Lyon	097 (20)	01/23/1987	4th	297	2	0	0	0
6th	Sandrine Soubeyrand	Juvisy FCF	194 (17)	08/16/1973	4th	210	0	0	0	0
17th	Gaëtane Thiney	Juvisy FCF	088 (35)	October 28, 1985	4th	320	0	0	0	0
Attackers
20th	Viviane Asseyi (d)	HSC Montpellier	001 0(0)	11/20/1993	0	0	0	0	0	0
19th	Sandrine Brétigny	Juvisy FCF	022 0(9)	07/02/1984	0	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Marie-Laure Delie	Paris Saint-Germain	059 (45)	01/29/1988	2	150	2	0	0	0
9	Eugénie Le Sommer	Olympique Lyon	074 (26)	05/18/1989	4th	328	2	0	0	0
12	Élodie Thomis	Olympique Lyon	090 (27)	08/13/1986	4th	240	0	0	0	0
Coaching team
	Bruno Bini (Head Coach)		95	10/01/1954	4th
	André Barthélémy (assistant coach)
	Corinne Diacre (assistant trainer)			08/04/1974
	Philippe Joly (physical and goalkeeper coach)

^(a) indicated is the club with which the player is under contract from July 2013

^(b)A international matches (international goals in brackets); Status: at the beginning of the European Championship tournament

^(c) Operating time in minutes

^(d) subsequently nominated

European Championship finals

Preliminary round

The French first met Russia , Spain and England in the preliminary round (Group C) . The international match results of the Bleues against their group opponents were consistently positive before the start of the tournament: against England six wins, seven draws, two defeats, against Spain six wins, three draws and no defeat, against Russia five wins, one draw and two defeats.

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	To.	P.
1	France	3	3	0	0	7: 1	9
2	Spain	3	1	1	1	4: 4	4th
3	Russia	3	0	2	1	3: 5	2
4th	England	3	0	1	2	3: 7	1

Friday, July 12, 2013, 6 p.m. in Norrköping
France	-	Russia	3: 1 (2: 0)
Monday, July 15, 2013, 8:30 p.m. in Norrköping
France	-	Spain	1: 0 (1: 0)
Thursday, July 18, 2013, 8:30 p.m. in Linköping
France	-	England	3: 0 (1: 0)

Against Russia, the coach set up the Bleues in 4-2-3-1:
Bouhaddi - Franco, Georges, Renard, Boulleau - Bussaglia, Soubeyrand (76th Catala) - Le Sommer , Abily, Thiney (66th Nécib) - Delie ( 61. Thomis)

Against Spain, Bini changed the starting eleven only in a midfield position:
Bouhaddi - Franco, Georges, Renard , Boulleau - Bussaglia, Soubeyrand (46th Thomis) - Abily, Nécib (63rd Le Sommer), Thiney - Delie

After this second game, the French were already the first team in the tournament to be the quarter-finalists (and also the winners of their preliminary group). Nevertheless, the coach announced on the day before the England game that he wanted to win this match as well and therefore not completely turn the team - which had been speculated about in the press. In the starting line-up, however, four players made their European Championship debut:
Deville - Franco, Renard , Delannoy, Houara - Soubeyrand (46th Bussaglia), Henry (61st Catala) - Thomis, Nécib , Thiney (46th Abily) - Le Summer For Louisa Nécib, it was the hundredth full international match .

Quarter finals

Against the Danes, the French international match record showed a negative balance in 15 matches (5 wins and 3 draws with 7 defeats). Since 2000, the Bleues had only lost twice (2001 in a European Championship group game 3: 4 and at the Algarve Cup 2007, shortly after Bini took office, 0: 4), but won five times. At the 2001 game, Soubeyrand was already in the French team - as was today's assistant coach Corinne Diacre, who was expelled from the field at the time for insulting the referee.

Monday, July 22, 2013, 8:45 p.m. in Linköping
France	-	Denmark	1: 1 n.V., 2: 4 i. E.

It was only shortly before the start of the game that it became clear that the striker Delie would be too risky due to an adductor injury that she sustained while warming up before the England match. Bini then named the following starting eleven, with Thiney in the front and Le Sommer in the left offensive midfield:
Bouhaddi - Franco, Georges (57th Delannoy), Renard , Boulleau - Bussaglia, Soubeyrand (46th Thomis) - Abily, Nécib , Le Sommer - Thiney

Thiney and Le Sommer converted their penalties in the penalty shootout, Nécib (on the Danish goalkeeper) and Delannoy (on the goal post) failed. Bouhaddi was only able to save one of the five Danish penalties.

After the European Championship

After the premature elimination of the eleven, which had meanwhile been declared top favorites by many journalists, L'Équipe recalled the parallel to the European Championship 2009 , when the French were also eliminated in the quarter-finals and only after penalty shootouts - at the time against the Netherlands  . Coach Bini denied the question of whether this departure meant a setback for the increased French interest in women's football; Shortly after the end of the game, he doesn't worry about the consequences for himself. And Sandrine Soubeyrand, for whom this 198th was also her last international match, drew the conclusion: "This is the sport: You have to be efficient, dominance alone is not enough".

However, UEFA subsequently selected five French women from the 23-man group of players for the all-star team of this tournament, namely Laure Boulleau, Wendie Renard, Louisa Nécib, Eugénie Le Sommer and Gaëtane Thiney. Only European champions Germany were represented in this selection with as many as six players. However, this international appreciation did not save the coach from the fact that the executive committee of the Fédération Française de Football on July 30, with immediate effect, terminated Bini's contract, which was still running until 2015, and named his successor ( Philippe Bergeroo ).

Supporting documents and comments

1. ↑ see Bini's decision of June 4, 2013
2. ↑ see the corresponding article on the association's website
3. ↑ see the article of July 11, 2013 at France Football
4. ↑ to the match page on uefa.com
5. ↑ see the article “Une compo mystère face à l'Angleterre” of July 17, 2013 at footofeminin.fr
6. ↑ see the message of July 21, 2013 at France Football
7. ↑ List according to uefa.com and francefootball.fr
8. ↑ see the article "France in the Danish trap" of July 22, 2013 at lequipe.fr
9. ↑ see the article "Bini:» Niedergeschlagen «" from July 23, 2013 at lequipe.fr
10. ↑ see the article "Soubeyrand:" Not efficient enough "" from July 23, 2013 at lequipe.fr