While the French teams have regularly lost on penalties in recent years, Hubert Fournier, the technical director of the FFF, revealed a process put in place to help the French selections in this exercise which is far from being a lottery (as Didier Deschamps imagines it)…
The final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar against Argentina but also the round of 16 of the last Euro (in 2021) remain huge traumas. The French team remains in fatal penalty shootout sessions and the helplessness of Hugo Lloris but also the lack of preparation on the part of Didier Deschamps’ staff made people cringe. No, penalties are not completely a lottery…
The technical management of the FFF took action, it put in place a process to improve the French selections concerning penalties. National coaches are warned, as DTN Hubert Fournier explains to RMC: “ He is the one in charge and everything starts from him. Both the setup, the weeks or days before the possible penalty shootout, to prepare the players. He will have to offer them a scenario while trying as much as possible to contextualize the penalty shootout. And then he will have to offer them varied exercises which will allow them to create personal confidence among the shooters. And then it will also be necessary to prepare, in the same way as that for the match, a real strategy linked to this specificity that is shooting on goal. “.
Shooting in 3rd or 4th…
Fournier believes that the moment of rest between the final whistle and the first shot on goal is “ capital “. The coach must know how to give confidence to the players, “ by having very clear ideas, knowing with your staff who is doing what during this period of time “, “ between five and six minutes “. For the former Reims and OL coach, it is also preferable to see the best shooters take charge of the third or fourth attempt (and not the fifth and potential last shot).
In addition to the Blues of “La Dèche”, the French women’s team also fell on penalties during the Women’s World Cup last summer in Australia, in the quarter-finals (0-0, 6-7 on the tabs). ), but, unlike the A staff, Hervé Renard had carefully prepared his team for possible penalties after the first round. The French U17 teams also lost in this exercise during the Euro and World Cup finals.
