Will the rural setting of the Francis-Le-Basser stadium in Laval, sold out, and the reduced stakes of this friendly event be able to appease the French women on the road to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20 – 20 August) ?
Recent performances, three defeats in the last seven matches including the semi-final of the Euro once morest Germany (2-1), are not reassuring for Corinne Deacon’s team before the third edition of the Tournoi de France, which will also oppose Les Bleues to Uruguay and Norway.
“We have to get to know each other better. Without that, it might be complicated” at the World Cup, underlines striker Kadidiatou Diani in an interview with AFP.
However, the context is not ideal for refining automatisms or “finding (a) game identity”, as the Parisian hopes.
Indeed, the surprise return of Kheira Hamraoui, a year following his last appearance, casts a veil of questions over the locker room.
enmities
The 33-year-old midfielder, recalled fifteen months following being the victim of an attack in the presence of her ex-teammate Aminata Diallo, suspected of having sponsored her, maintains icy relations with certain partners of PSG and Les Bleues, such as “Kadi ” Diani or Sandy Baltimore.
“To avoid being vulgar, I will abstain from any comment. It would be better if I didn’t,” Diani told AFP on Monday regarding Hamraoui’s return.
As for Baltimore, it remains on a clash in training with Hamraoui last April, starting point of a long sidelining of the latter, until October.
What to worry regarding? Questioned on Tuesday, captain Wendie Renard kicked into touch. “There are no tensions. She hasn’t been in the group for a while but today she is selected and there are no problems,” assured the Lyon defender.
Last week, Corinne Deacon had already warned that she will “not make a big deal out of the Hamraoui case”.
In February 2022, however, tensions had suddenly rebounded in the middle of a rally, when Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto had celebrated a goal in tribute to Diallo … under the eyes of Hamraoui, sitting on the bench of substitutes.
This time, Katoto is not there, affected for a long time in one knee.
“Misreading”
And the striker is not the only one absent. France is also without defender Griedge Mbock (knee) and the two professional left wingers, Sakina Karchaoui (ankle) and Selma Bacha (thigh).
Unpredictable in the construction of his lists, Deacon took a step aside to deal with these absences.
As a scorer, she is betting on … winger Diani, who prefers to play on the right but said she was ready to “sacrifice” herself, like at PSG.
The only other pure N.9 in the squad is Ouleymata Sarr, often a substitute at Paris FC, barred by Mathilde Bourdieu, who is not called up despite her status as the second top scorer in D1 (behind Diani).
And on the left flank of the defense, Bacha and Karchaoui are not replaced position for position.
“We have left-handers in the team. We have right-handed players who can also play on the left. We have several solutions, especially with Estelle Cascarino”, justified the coach on Thursday.
Recalled for the first time in two years, Estelle Cascarino is however a central back by profession and has just joined Manchester United with a view to evolving … in the middle.
“Midfielder, it’s a direction that I wanted to give to my career”, she explains to AFP a few days following her departure, on loan, from PSG, while acknowledging having “always helped out laterally”.
Given the context, will this February course offer enough lessons for Les Bleues? “As there are a lot of injuries, it will inevitably distort the reading a little,” warns Diani.
The French however no longer have time to procrastinate: following the Tournoi de France, only a rally is on their program before the World Cup.
