“Everything will not be perfect, we are not magicians”, recognizes Hervé Renard after his stunning first at the head of the Blue

A particularly difficult start, but an equally reassuring reaction. The France team largely won on Friday, April 7, against Colombia (5-2), in Clermont-Ferrand, in a friendly match. A successful first, just over three months before the World Cup (July 20 to August 20), for the new coach of Les Bleues, Hervé Renard, saying he was satisfied to have “straightened out“even if it takes”be much strongerat the World Cup this summer.

How do you explain the two faces of Les Bleues?

Herve Renard: When you slip into the funnel against an athletic team, it’s tough. When we corrected the shot, it immediately gave more impact, created more difficulties for the opponent. The changes at half-time were not a sanction, it was to straighten things out. I had planned three changes but not those. Something had to be changed. Delphine Cascarino and Clara Matéo, you know their qualities. I wanted to save strength for Tuesday [contre le Canada], that was not enough so we put in some new blood. From the moment we rectify, we get back on the right track. Everything won’t be perfect, I know that, we’re not magicians.

“We are already at a very good level but we will have to be much more solid because the World Cup is something else.”

Hervé Renard, coach of Les Bleues

at a press conference

Defensively, you need solidity, rigour, much more aggressiveness. We have a lot of time to work, but we can’t behave like that against some of the best teams in the world. We have things to rectify so these are good lessons.

Did the locker room walls shake at half-time?

No no [il sourit]. I’m going to start slowly, I’m not going to traumatize them from the start… I knew we were going to come back, that we had this ability. I was a little surprised by this second goal, but the most important thing is the reaction, it forges the group.

What analysis do you make of the winning return of Eugénie Le Sommer?

When you score 88 goals in the France team, it is necessarily that you have some qualities. She came back for this. You shouldn’t take any risks with her calf either, 65 minutes was the maximum, she managed to score twice just before going out. Congratulations to her, all the more so in these conditions because we sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves. With the percussion players we have, it’s a shame to do without them in the axis. Some are also absent, and she knows her role perfectly. It’s the best comeback she can make.