Soccer World Cup 2019 / France

This article covers the French women's national football team at the 2019 World Cup . France took part in a World Cup finals for the fourth time after 2003, 2011 and 2015. As the host of the World Cup finals, the French did not need to qualify for the tournament. This time they were eliminated from the competition in the quarter-finals.

preparation

Bouhaddi Torrent Mbock Renard (Tounkara) Majri Henry Bussaglia (Bilbault, Geyoro) Thiney Le summer (Asseyi) Diani (D. Cascarino) Gauvin World Cup test phase 2018/19

In the twelve months before the start of the World Cup finals, national coach Corinne Diacre tried to make up for the lack of competitive games by playing friendly matches against as many top-class opponents as possible. Among them were Australia (2: 0), Brazil (3: 1), the USA (3: 1), Germany (0: 1), Japan (3: 1) and vice European champions Denmark (4: 0), also as weaker einzuschätzende Uruguay (6: 0). Another criterion for the selection of opponents in preparation for the tournament was for Diacre to try out "different game cultures and styles"; therefore an opponent from Asia should be included who is not qualified for the World Cup, such as North Korea . In fact, in the 14 days before the opening game against South Korea, Thailand (3: 0) and China (2: 1) were two World Cup participants.

For this preparation program, the French women - just like the German women - decided not to take part in the SheBelieves Cup 2019 .

A total of 26 women were used for France in the eleven test games of the 2018/19 season, after which the presumed core formation - in the 4-2-3-1 system preferred by the coach  - was clearly evident in most positions (see the graphic on the right):

Goal: Sarah Bouhaddi (Lyon, 9 + 1e), Pauline Peyraud-Magnin (Arsenal, 2)

Defense: Marion Torrent (Montpellier, 10), Wendie Renard (Lyon, 8), Amel Majri (Lyon, 7), Griedge Mbock Bathy (Lyon, 7), Aïssatou Tounkara (Atlético Madrid, 5), Sakina Karchaoui (Montpellier, 3 + 2e), Eve Périsset (Paris SG, 1 + 3e), Julie Debever (Guingamp, 2), Annaïg Butel (Paris FC, 1)

Midfield: Gaëtane Thiney (Paris FC, 9 + 1e), Élise Bussaglia (Dijon, 6 + 3e), Charlotte Bilbault (Paris FC, 5 + 4e), Amandine Henry (Lyon, 8), Onema Grace Geyoro (Paris SG, 3 + 4e), Kenza Dali (Dijon, 3e), Maéva Clemaron (Fleury, 3e), Kheira Hamraoui (Barcelona, ​​1e)

Attack: Kadidiatou Diani (Paris SG, 8 + 1e), Delphine Cascarino (Lyon, 8 + 1e), Valérie Gauvin (Montpellier, 8 + 1e), Viviane Asseyi (Bordeaux, 2 + 6e), Eugénie Le Sommer (Lyon, 6 ), Emelyne Laurent (Guingamp, 5e), Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Paris SG, 1 + 3e)

In brackets: current club and number of missions; e = substituted on

The 36 goals were scored by: Diani (8), Le Sommer (6), Gauvin (5), Cascarino, Mbock Bathy (3 each), Dali, Bussaglia (2 each), Thiney, Renard, Katoto, Asseyi, Bilbault, Geyoro, Clemaron (1 each).

France's “second suit”, the B-Elf, had played a total of seven games in February / March 2019 at the Turkish Women's Cup and in early April in La Manga, Spain . Ultimately, however, no one from this group could buy a World Cup ticket at the last minute.

Regardless of the positive preparation with ten wins and one defeat, it will have to be found out at the World Cup finals whether “the existing potential [of the Bleues] can be converted into countable successes for a change”.

Training camp

The players called up for the World Cup (see the “Line-up” section below) came - with the exception of the seven Lyon women, who had to play the national cup final that day , and the two footballers playing abroad - in Perros from May 8th to 11th -Guirec together. From May 13th to 18th, the squad gathered at the Center technique national Fernand-Sastre in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines . This was followed by three days off, during which the Olympique Lyon players still had the Champions League final in Budapest . From May 21 until the start of the finals, the French were back in Clairefontaine, from where they traveled to the last two test encounters and the first World Cup group game.

Against Thailand, the first of the two “dress rehearsals” in preparation for the World Cup opening game against South Korea, Diacre allowed six of the seven Lyon women to rest after winning the European Cup again and only put Delphine Cascarino in France's starting eleven. Against China, exactly seven days before the World Cup "emergency", the coach again did without Le Sommer and Majri, both of whom were still slightly injured - "a pure precautionary measure," said Diacre. Henry was also missing from the score sheet.

Contingent

Immediately after the draw, the trainer made the relatively meaningless statement that her final group of 23 players would consist of a mixture of youth and routine. After submitting a preselection containing 50 names to FIFA at the end of April, she announced her line-up, reduced to 23, on May 2, 2019, i.e. before the national competitions ( championship on May 4, club cup on May 8). As expected from the preparatory phase, Corinne Diacre stayed true to her personal tableau; the last two open places she occupied with Maéva Clemaron (instead of Kheira Hamraoui or Kenza Dali) and Emelyne Laurent instead of Marie-Antoinette Katoto. In particular, the disregard of Katoto's - in the current first division season again by far the most accurate scorer - preoccupied the media immediately after the announcement - at L'Équipe even on page one the following day. The trainer justified her decision with the statement that it was a difficult weighing process and that Katoto had “enormous potential, but she still has her future ahead of her. From my point of view, she lacks the final readiness to prevail against strong opponents. "

Corinne Diacre nominated the following women - with an average age of 26.7 years:

No.	Surname	Association (a)	Country games (goals) (b)0	of which at WM (c)	birthday	World Cup 2019
						Sp.	Sp.- Min.	Gates	(d)	0	0
Goalkeepers
16	Sarah Bouhaddi	Olympique Lyon	140 0(0)	05 (0)	10/17/1986	5	480
01	Solène Durand	EA Guingamp	000 0(0)		11/20/1994
21st	Pauline Peyraud-Magnin	Arsenal Women FC (ENG)	002 0(0)		03/17/1992
Defenders
22nd	Julie Debever	EA Guingamp	003 0(0)		04/18/1988
07th	Sakina Karchaoui	Montpellier HSC	025 0(0)		01/26/1996	1	002
10	Amel Majri	Olympique Lyon	046 0(4)	02 (0)	01/25/1993	5	462
19th	Griedge Mbock Bathy	Olympique Lyon	050 0(5)	00 (0)	02/26/1995	5	480		1
02	Eve Périsset	Paris Saint-Germain FC	015 0(0)		12/24/1994	3	117
03	Wendie Renard	Olympique Lyon	109 (20)	08 (0)	07/20/1990	5	480	4th	1
04th	Marion Torrent	Montpellier HSC	021 0(0)		04/17/1992	4th	379
05	Aïssatou Tounkara	Atlético Madrid (SPA)	012 0(0)		March 16, 1995
Midfielders
14th	Charlotte Bilbault	Paris FC	016 0(1)		06/05/1990	2	098
15th	Élise Bussaglia	FCO Dijon	188 (30)	09 (1)	09/24/1985	4th	300		1
23	Maéva Clemaron	Fleury FC	004 0(1)		11/10/1992
08th	Onema Grace Geyoro	Paris Saint-Germain FC	022 0(1)		07/02/1997	2	005
06th	Amandine Henry	Olympique Lyon	083 (11)	05 (1)	09/28/1989	5	480	2
17th	Gaëtane Thiney	Paris FC	156 (58)	11 (2)	October 28, 1985	5	386
Attackers
18th	Viviane Asseyi	Girondins Bordeaux	032 0(5)		11/20/1993	3	179
20th	Dolphins Cascarino	Olympique Lyon	013 0(3)		02/05/1997	5	182
11	Kadidiatou Diani	Paris Saint-Germain FC	047 (10)	01 (0)	04/01/1995	5	417
13	Valérie Gauvin	Montpellier HSC	019 (10)		06/01/1996	5	334	2	1
12	Emelyne Laurent	EA Guingamp	005 0(0)		11/04/1998
09	Eugénie Le Sommer	Olympique Lyon	159 (74)	11 (3)	05/18/1989	5	409	2	1
Coaching staff
Corinne Diacre		Head coach	23	(e)	08/04/1974
Philippe Joly		Assistant coach
Gilles Fouache		Goalkeeper coach

^(a) The specified club is with which the player is under contract until June 30, 2019.

^(b)A international matches (international goals in brackets) before the start of the World Cup; As of May 31, 2019

^(c)Matches and goals in previous World Cup finals (2011, 2015); Zero stakes are only noted here for players who were part of one of these tournaments.

^(d) If necessary, differentiated according to “before / from the semi-finals”, because yellow cards from the preliminary round, round of 16 or quarter-finals are removed by FIFA before the round of the last four teams

^(e) As a player, Corinne Diacre also played three World Cup games in 2003 (not scoring a goal herself).

The coach has occupied every position twice, only in the offensive midfield - according to the assessment of Charlotte Vincelot at footofeminin.fr - a second player with the qualities of Gaëtane Thiney, who is both a designer and an executor and who likes Eugénie Le Sommer Kadidiatou Diani understands almost blindly.

Games

Group stage

When the draw for the World Cup qualifying round groups on 8 December 2018, the French women, at that time the parties were world ranking , as head of Group A set. They were drawn to Norway, South Korea and Africa Cup winner Nigeria (rankings 13, 14 and 39 respectively). Tickets for the games against South Korea and Nigeria were sold out three months before the tournament started.

The Bleues had only played two games against South Korea and won both: 1-0 at the 2003 World Cup and 3-0 at the 2015 World Cup . There were also only two games won against Nigeria, namely a 1-0 win at the 2011 World Cup and an 8-0 win at a friendly in April 2018. Norway, on the other hand, is one of France's most frequent opponents. The overall balance from 20 matches was negative (five wins, seven draws, eight defeats); however, the last success of the Scandinavians was 16 years ago (2-0 at the 2003 World Cup). Most recently, France won 1-0 in early 2016, and in the summer of 2017 they parted 1: 1.

Pl.	team	Sp	S.	U	N	Gates	P.
1	France	3	3	0	0	7: 1	9
2	Norway	3	2	0	1	6: 3	6th
3	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	2: 4	3
4th	South Korea	3	0	0	3	1: 8	0

Friday, June 7, 2019, 9:00 p.m., in Paris ( Parc des Princes )
France	-	South Korea	4: 0 (3: 0)
Wed., June 12, 2019, 9 p.m., in Nice ( Stade de Nice )
France	-	Norway	2: 1 (0: 0)
Mon., June 17, 2019, 9 p.m., in Rennes ( Roazhon Park )
France	-	Nigeria	1: 0 (0: 0)

In the opening game against South Korea there was only one small surprise: Kadidiatou Diani took the position in the attack center; but Valérie Gauvin initially stayed on the bench - because she had appeared twice late for training in the previous days. From the very first minute , the French slipped away from the enormously high pressure of expectation, which was already evident emotionally when playing the Marseillaise on many faces: “The Bleues started with a lot of pressure [...] and constricted the physically inferior opponent South Korea from the start their own penalty area. [...] While the Diacre-Elf continued to play highly motivated, South Korea seemed unimaginative. The announcement that they want to annoy France shouldn't take place. ” Instead, the hosts were even able to shift down a gear in the second half. A premiere - the first video evidence at a major women's tournament - occurred with a goal scored by Griedge Mbock Bathy (27th) by a remarkable side puller, which was withdrawn by referee Claudia Umpiérrez (Uruguay) after two and a half minutes of advice because of offside position .
France played in the following line-up: Bouhaddi - Torrent, Mbock Bathy, Renard, Majri (Périsset, 74th) - Henry, Bussaglia - Cascarino (Gauvin, 70th), Thiney (Geyoro, 86th), Le Sommer - Diani. The goals came from Le Sommer (9th minute), Renard (35th and 45th + 2) and Henry (85th). The game was attended by 45,261 spectators.

The second, supposedly decisive match for group victory against Norway was headed by Bibiana Steinhaus , who already knew the Bleues from three previous friendlies (2010, 2014, 2018). In each of these encounters, the French had won without conceding a goal. Gauvin was back in the lead, but Diani moved to the offensive right wing at Cascarino's expense. This move paid off; the penalty area striker occupied the opposing defense, worked well behind and took the lead immediately after the break (46th minute). She was then declared Woman of the Match . After Renard, relatively undisturbed, steered the ball into his own goal to equalize (54th), Le Sommer shot France again after 72 minutes with a penalty . This was preceded by a foul on Torrent, which the referee only recognized afterwards via video.
The French line-up: Bouhaddi - Torrent, Mbock Bathy, Renard, Majri - Henry, Bussaglia - Diani, Thiney (Bilbault, 82nd), Le Sommer - Gauvin (Cascarino, 85th). For France Football , Thiney (eight out of ten stars) was the deciding figure in front of 34,872 spectators, followed by Gauvin, Diani and captain Henry (each grade seven).

Although France had not yet secured the desired first place, Corinne Diacre spared four regular players with Torrent, Bussaglia, Diani and Le Sommer at the kick-off against Nigeria. In this encounter, the Bleues were overwhelmingly superior, especially in the second half, but failed repeatedly due to their own weakness in the final. The goal of the day was another novelty in the history of the Women's World Cup. In the 76th minute, the French were awarded a penalty by video evidence for foul play, which Wendie Renard shot at the outside post. Immediately afterwards, the video assistants reported again to the Honduran referee Melissa Borjas , who then decided to repeat the penalty because Nigeria's goalkeeper had both feet in front of the goal line the first time, for which she was punished with a yellow card after the foul end Ngozi Ebere had already been sent off with yellow and red. Renard grabbed the ball again and this time converted safely in the 79th minute. She was then named “Player of the Game” for the second time after the opening game.
The French line-up was: Bouhaddi - Périsset, Mbock Bathy, Renard, Majri - Henry, Bilbault - Cascarino (Le Sommer, 63rd), Thiney (Geyoro, 89th), Asseyi - Gauvin (Diani, 63rd). The game was attended by 28,267 spectators.

Round of 16

23 June 2019 in Stade Océane of Le Havre (23,965 spectators):
France - Brazil 2: 1 aet (1: 1, 0: 0).

The French have previously played eight games against Brazil, of which they won three and drew five times. Among them was an encounter at the 2003 World Cup, in which the two women's teams separated 1: 1. The Bleues won their most recent meeting in November 2018 3-1.

Diacre went back to the starting line-up for the Norway game, but replaced Thiney as the central offensive force in midfield with Asseyi. In an exciting, albeit not high-quality, duel, both teams were almost equal, and the few scoring chances were evenly distributed in regular time: Gauvin's leading goal in the first half was subsequently revoked by the Canadian referee Marie-Soleil Beaudoin , but this time she steered flawless Bouhaddi hit a Cristiane headball with his fingertips on the crossbar. In extra time, both opponents had a great chance to take the lead. First, Mbock Bathy saved her already defeated goalkeeper from a Debinha shot centimeters from the goal line, then Henry, who was subsequently elected player of the game, steered a cross with a balancing act to make it 2-1 in Brazil's goal.

The coach started her team this time in a 4-4-2 : Bouhaddi - Torrent (Périsset, 109th), Mbock Bathy, Renard, Majri (Karchaoui, 118th) - Henry, Asseyi (Thiney, 81st), Bussaglia, Le Summer - Diani, Gauvin (Cascarino, 90th + 2). The French goals were scored by Gauvin (52nd) and Henry (107th).
For footofeminin.fr, Diani (score 7.5), the goalkeeper, who was also attested by the commentator on the ARD live stream broadcasting some world-class parades, with score 7, Henry (6.5) and Gauvin (6) stood out for footofeminin.fr out. In addition, Thiney, who was substituted on late, gave the French game much more structure, both offensively and defensively.

Quarter finals

June 28, 2019 in the Parc des Princes of Paris :
France - USA 1: 2 (0: 1)

The North Americans are the second most popular opponent in French international history, and the record against them is clearly negative. For example, France lost 3-1 in the semifinals of the 2011 World Cup and at the 2012 Olympic Games (2-4) and 2016 (0-1). Recently, however, the French have also had some successes, for example 3-0 at the SheBelieves Cup in the USA in 2017 and 3-1 at a friendly match in January 2019.

In front of 45,595 visitors, France dropped out of their home World Cup with the following line-up: Bouhaddi - Torrent, Mbock Bathy, Renard, Majri - Henry, Bussaglia - Diani, Thiney, Le Sommer (Asseyi, 82nd) ​​- Gauvin (Cascarino, 76th) . The late French goal in the 81st minute was scored by Renard after a cross from Thiney; it was her third goal with a header.

As early as the 5th minute of the game, the hosts were trailing behind. Despite all efforts, it had a negative effect that they hardly created any scoring chances despite increasing dominance. In particular, the left attacking side with Majri and Le Sommer - otherwise often a highlight of the offensive - remained pale and behind their possibilities. Footofeminin.fr only attested an at least decent performance to the goalkeeper Bouhaddi (grade 6), Diani (5.5) and, to a limited extent, Renard, Henry and Thiney (each with the 5).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} " Corinne Diacre: Nothing will be easy " from December 9, 2018 at footofeminin.fr
2. ↑ Article “ A packed program is imminent ” from February 13, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
3. ↑ This is how Charlotte Vincelot put it in her assessment of the World Cup favorites from May 1, 2019 at footofeminin.fr.
4. ↑ Schedule of preparation at fff.fr
5. ↑ “ One last test before the big day ” from May 31, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
6. ↑ Article “ Corinne Diacre remains true to her selection ” from May 2, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
7. ↑ For example, Le Monde (" The Blues without Marie-Antoinette Katoto "), Le Parisien (" The gold piece Katoto left out ") and Liberation (" Diacre disdains the jewel Katoto "), all from May 2, 2019.
8. ↑ " List of the 23 Bleues for the World Cup - The reasons for the absence of Marie-Antoinette Katoto " from May 3, 2019 at lequipe.fr
9. ↑ Article “ The choice has been made, I stand by it ” from May 2, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
10. ↑ List on the association's website fff.fr; Final allocation of the shirt numbers according to footofeminin.fr from May 25, 2019.
11. ↑ “ How did Corinne Diacre use the 23 blues during preparation? “From May 6, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
12. ↑ Game statistics according to the article " The draw - South Korea, Norway and Nigeria " from December 9, 2018 at footofeminin.fr
13. ↑ " A successful start for the Bleues " from June 8, 2019 at footofeminin.f
14. ↑ Several players could barely hold back their tears. - see the interview with Gaëtane Thiney on June 8, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
15. ↑ Match report "To begin with, a warning: France is brilliant" from June 7, 2019 on kicker.de
16. ↑ Article " Bibiana Steinhaus at the whistle in France against Norway " from June 12, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
17. ↑ " First final victory against Norway " on June 13, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
18. ^ " The notes for France - Norway " from June 12, 2019 at francefootball.fr
19. ↑ " Referee horror in Nigeria: VAR, yellow-red, penalty repetition " from June 17, 2019 at kicker.de
20. ↑ " The penalties that forced the decision " from June 18, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
21. ↑ " A worthwhile tactical change? “From June 24, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
22. ↑ " France - Brazil: The Notes of the Game " from June 24, 2019 at footofeminin.fr
23. ↑ see, for example, the articles “ That can only be described as a defeat ” from June 29th and “ Le Sommer - from the celebration to defeat ” from July 1st, 2019, both at footofeminin.fr
24. ↑ Rating of the players from June 29, 2019 at footofeminin.fr