an almost perfect record for the Bleues but adjustments still to be refined for 2024

Qualified for the Final Four at the end of this Nations League group stage, concluded with a narrow victory in Portugal on Tuesday (1-0), the France team will face Spain, the Netherlands or Germany in the semi-finals.

Almost perfect. Les Bleues finished their Nations League group stage undefeated on Tuesday, December 5, with a success at the very end of the match against Portugal in Leiria (1-0). If qualification for the Final Four was within reach from the draw, the French team – 5th nation in the world – managed to assume its status as favorite from start to finish.

In terms of accounting, it is the team with the best record of the sixteen selections entered in League A with 16 points (five wins and one draw). But also the best defense, with only one goal conceded during the trip to Norway at the end of October (1-2). “They have had a perfect run and today it rewards the group as a whole. I have always had teams like that, you have to be solid to win titles”greeted Hervé Renard in the mixed zone, who has eight clean sheets in 11 official matches since taking office. “There is no secret, solidity is what we have been working on every day for months”added Maëlle Lakrar, starting point against the Lusitaniennes.

A team still evolving

In view of these good performances behind, the rearguard with which the coach will deal at the Final Four, and possibly at the Olympic Games, seems found. Alongside the indestructible Sakina Karchaoui and Wendie Renard, Griedge Mbock has been invaluable in her interventions since she returned to competition, while Elisa De Almeida is decisive on the right flank. Like their captain, the two players did not play on Tuesday to avoid receiving a suspensive yellow card for the semi-finals. In the cage, Constance Picaud also retains the favors of Hervé Renard, despite two correct performances from Pauline Peyraud-Magnin and Solène Durand this month with the loss of the Parisienne.

But while several associations have been tested in recent months in the middle, the offensive front seems to be the sector which has the most chance of evolving. Scorer against Austria on her return after a year and a half of convalescence on Friday, Marie-Antoinette Katoto announced that she expected to reach her peak form for February-March. As for Delphine Cascarino, injured in cruciate knee ligaments, she is expected on the field for the start of the year.

“When we expand the group with the wounded, we reach around thirty units, or even more”, underlined Hervé Renard, aware that choices will have to be made with an Olympic list of 18 names. However, he was full of praise for Vicki Becho, whose cross allowed Grace Geyoro to score on Tuesday. “She’s one of the little papers. The left side defender didn’t have a very good match with Vicki! At the World Cup, she was exceptional every time she came on. We have to let her grow slowly but she is there and there, she is one of the internationals who count.” A possible trend for the future.

Still too many trash in the game

Despite its qualification for the Final Four, the French team “still has quite a few points to improve on”, according to the tactician, between now and the next major events. In the six matches since the World Cup, his team has regularly lacked accuracy and control in the midfield against opponents who are less armed.

“We will have to raise our level, we are showing technical approximations. When you see a team like Spain, technically they are very, very strong. We are capable of doing it at the ends of matches but we have to we are more consistent in the game and we have the same determination”he noted after the game against Austria last Friday, during which the Bleues seemed to lose the thread of their football at the end of the first period, as often in their weak times.

While the selection record is still blank, the Blues will have a lot to do in February against Spain, world champion last July, the Netherlands and Germany. Nations which have all won a major title in the last ten years.