With the European Championships not far away, France are testing themselves against some quality opposition in the build-up. After comfortably securing qualification, topping their group with eight wins out of eight, they lined up friendly matches against England, and Germany home and away. This week, while the other national teams who will contest the European Championships are testing themselves at the Algarve Cup (where the US and Japan are also playing) and the Cyprus Cup (also featuring Canada and New Zealand), France have played two matches against Brazil, with their final friendly scheduled for 4th April against Canada. Their opponents are all top ten sides in the women’s rankings (France are fifth, currently) and so a good test of their mettle and ability to adapt to opponents playing a variety of styles. So far in this run, they are unbeaten – but they are yet to win.
There have been many positives: against England they came from 2-0 down to get a draw thanks to a brace from Marie-Laure Delie; 1-1 was a good result away in Germany; and in the first match against Brazil, they twice came from behind to level to the score. Despite those occasions of battling spirit, there were also some worrying moments; in the home fixture against Germany they led 3-1 before being reeled in for the draw, and this by a German team being rebuilt after the 2011 World Cup. It was reminiscent of the opening match at the Olympics, when France went 2-0 up against the US before being ruthlessly overhauled, the eventual gold medallists winning it 4-2.
However, spirits were high after the first match against Brazil at Nancy, and Bruno Bini made only two changes to the starting line-up for the second; Celine Deville in goal instead of Sarah Bouhaddi, and a rejig of midfield to allow Eugenie Le Sommer to start. This may have been a mistake – in the first match, France played a holding pair of Sandrine Soubeyrand and Camille Abily (as a deeper-lying playmaker), but at Rouen he left Abily on the bench to accommodate Le Sommer. Brazil bossed the first part of the match, and it quickly became apparent that centre-back Laura Georges was having one of those evenings. She repeatedly lost track of her woman, and France were lucky to be able to scramble away the results. Around the half-hour mark, France came into it with a couple of good chances for Le Sommer and Delie, but the finishing was lacking.
Goalless at half time, and it seemed a good idea to take Georges off for Wendie Renard, or maybe PSG’s Jessica Houara, to get her some game-time in a blue shirt before the Euros. Instead, Bini made a change that was arguably his second tactical error – he took off Soubeyrand for Abily. While she can play deeper, she is not a ‘stopper’, and this left France with a gap between defence and attack that partly explains what happened next; Brazil went ahead through an own goal from the hapless Georges. Unprotected, and under pressure from Giovania, who had got both goals in the first match, the centre-back ended up inadvertently lobbing Deville from distance when trying to get the ball away.
The new French kit (right) looks a pale imitation of the classic blue
France did start to push on more after this setback, Necib putting in a freekick that Corinne Franco reached, but could not convert, and then forcing a fine save from Thais which came off the post. Then, a lifeline – a penalty was awarded for handball by Danielli. But then also, an example of why Brazil are the exception to the usual view of women’s football as ‘cleaner’ (less diving, less playing to the ref, less whingeing) than the men’s game; as well as Danielli’s protestations, which got her booked, goalkeeper Thais took it upon herself to come off her line to complain about the placement of the ball on the spot, and there was a long build-up to the spot-kick as a result. Le Sommer’s strike was not great – straight down the middle, and Thais saved. It wasn’t an easy save to make – not along the ground to be stopped by a trailing leg, rather quite high-up, requiring the keeper to twist back out of her dive to get a hand to it – but Le Sommer should have made a better job of it.
Les Bleues continued to push, Thomis missing while off-balance and Necib again hitting the woodwork, but it took another penalty, in the last of six minutes of extra time, to level it. This time – the referee again having to intervene in the build-up to tell Brazil off for encroachment – Necib was the taker, and showed more composure. They deserved the draw on the balance of play, but there remain concerns; Brazil did not seem overly bothered about scoring, and the French finishing was, as is frequently the case, profligate. Against a team more invested in the match, their defensive lapses and wastefulness in front of goal will be more harshly treated. It is perhaps a benefit that the final friendly will be against Canada, who are a powerful and direct team not likely to take the match lightly. Canada are in fact the last team to have beaten Les Bleues, in the bronze medal match at the 2012 Olympics, a match in which the lack of French finishing was decisive – they had 25 shots but only got four on target; the Canadians had three, scoring in injury time to win 1-0. ”Tout est dit“, said the L’Equipe MBM, with a sigh – “says it all”.
It is crucial that Bini gets his tactics right, to find a balance between stacking the team with attacking talent at the expense of solidity in defence. Sticking to 4-2-3-1 with a clear focus up-front could be more productive than having too many options there while leaving a hole in front of the defense.