The penultimate French shooter in the penalty shootout lost on Saturday against Australia in the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup, Kenza Dali had great difficulty in cashing in the elimination of Les Bleues (0-0, 7-6 at the tab).
The episode will go down as one of the highlights of Saturday’s penalty shootout at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane in the 2023 World Cup quarter-final between Australia and France. While the two teams are perfectly tied in the final session (6-6), Kenze Dali comes up against Mackenzie Arnold. The Frenchwoman chooses the right side, but the goalkeeper diverts. But the referee intervenes and asks that the shot be retaken, the VAR having indicated that Arnold was not on his line. New chance for Dali who will again strike on the right. Bad choice since her Australian opponent will once again anticipate and stop the strike. A few minutes later, Australia qualified. And Kenze Dali won’t have a hard time recovering from it.
The tricolor international gave his first impressions to The Team, with real regrets and a strong sense of guilt. ” I collapsed. My penalty is very badly taken. Recalling that she played two years at West Ham with Mackenzie Arnold, Kenze Dali continued: That’s not an excuse. (…) I am the first disappointed. I take responsibility. I didn’t want to shoot it because she knows me by heart. Unable to see the positive so soon after the game, the midfielder insisted: There, right away, I’m going to take the elimination for me. It’s difficult but that’s how it is. So far, I can’t see the positive.”
a lot of hope
Fatalistic about elimination at the quarter-final stage, as in 2019 during the World Cup organized in France, Kenze Dali concluded, with a glimmer of hope all the same: “ We will say that history repeats itself but behind the scenes, not too much. (…) When you see the young people on the bench, I have a lot of hope for the France team.”
