Thanks to a goal from its captain, the French team signed its second victory in a row on Tuesday and retains the lead in its group in the Nations League.
A successful Viennese waltz. Four days after their success against Portugal at the opening of the Nations League, the Blues doubled the lead by dominating the non-globalist Austrian team despite their 16th Fifa rank (1-0), Tuesday September 26. A victory marked by a generally regained mastery for the 500th match in the history of the selection, despite a more difficult start to the second half.
The scenario of the meeting obviously helped. Taking advantage of a foul hand from Arsenal goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger, Wendie Renard found the fault with a header from a Selma Bacha free kick in the fifth minute. Freed from the start, the Blues set up their game, monopolizing the ball and using width.
An almost perfect first period
After a World Cup where she had to force her nature by playing in the center, Kadidiatou Diani showed herself to be incisive on her right side, like a good cross for Eugénie Le Sommer (12th). While on the other flank, the relays between Selma Bacha and Sakina Karchaoui brought danger (15th, 18th, 37th). A passing pattern that was not rewarded due to a lack of good finishing and which had the consequence of skipping a more obliterated midfield, where Amandine Henry started for the first time since November 2020.
Quite harmless in the first period and forced to settle for set-piece situations like the bar hit by Celina Degen (45th+1), the Austrians also tried to take advantage of it after returning from the locker room. But they did not succeed despite their aggressiveness which made the French game more confusing for a quarter of an hour. The storm finally passed without Constance Picaud, escorted by the coach into the goals, having to work despite a new scare from a free kick (85th).
Les Bleues in ideal position before Norway
The French players, who had displayed difficulties in construction against pressing Lusitanians on Friday, did not produce a perfect copy from start to finish. But that was enough to spoil the party at Viola Park, where 10,000 spectators gathered in a warm atmosphere, multiplying the Austrian attendance record for women’s football by almost three.
Thanks to this second success, Hervé Renard’s group increases its lead at the top of group A2 and places itself in an ideal position before a double confrontation against Norway – which lost in Portugal (3-2) – in a month.