Four days after its victory in Norway, the French team welcomes the Scandinavians on Tuesday in Reims to try to continue its flawless performance in the competition.
This is also the mark of great selections. Without impressing with its mastery since the start of the League of Nations last September, the French team is currently achieving a solid success with three victories in three matches, while perhaps waiting for a fourth in a row, Tuesday October 31, during the second round against Norway.
Whether against Portugal (2-0), Austria (1-0) or even in Oslo on Friday when the Scandinavians came back to score (2-1 final score), the Blues, less technically comfortable and in difficulty in sequences, however, rarely gave the sensation of completely losing the thread. This is necessarily due a little to the quality of their opponents – the highest nation in the FIFA rankings in their group, Norway is only 13th in the world – but also to their offensive success which allowed them to get out of trouble.
Lesson in realism
Among the 16 teams playing in League A of this new competition, France is the one with the largest goals/expected goals differential (an index allowing us to observe the probability of scoring based on the quality of a shot). ). In other words, it is the formation that best succeeds in converting low-dangerous situations into goals. Or even “non-opportunities”, like the counterattack by the Norwegian Maren Mjelde who was pushed into error by Julie Dufour during the last match.
“Even if we had a little less chances, in the game we were a little more efficient by starting from behind. The important thing in these matches is always to come away with a victory”, also retained Hervé Renard after the meeting. A now ritual speech for the coach, who had already congratulated himself in this way after the victory in Vienna: “If we weren’t beautiful, we were efficient.”
Wendie Renard, researcher
Paradoxically, none of the attackers have yet scored, like Kadidiatou Diani who has been struggling since returning from the World Cup. As a result, the Blues rely on the well-oiled connection between the Lyonnaises Selma Bacha and Wendie Renard, the symbol of this efficiency. Already scoring against Austria with a header from a free kick from her partner, the French captain once again distinguished herself from a standstill with a good helmet shot in Norway to take a corner. His 29th header in the selection (37 goals in total), the third in a row on a service from the side.
In the absence of Selma Bacha, suspended for accumulation of yellow cards, the Blues will however have to find other offensive resources for this second match against the Norwegians. “We want to be more dangerous in the offensive phases. We created a lot of mismatches on Friday, but we didn’t have a lot of chances. We need to be even more on the offensive. The context will be a little different than in Oslo. We will take the game into our own hands, but we will have to keep the balance.” warned the coach at a press conference on Monday.
Still, he will probably be satisfied with a success, whatever the way, and even more so if it is combined with a draw between Austria and Portugal. In this scenario, France would qualify for the Final Four of the Nations League next February, even before the last two days of its group.