Thanks to its prestigious success against its bête noire on Friday in the semi-finals, the French team will have the opportunity to win the first title in its history in five days.
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Head to the final for the Blues. Facing Germany, an opponent it had never beaten in official competition, the French women’s football team did not give up on Friday February 23 in Lyon, and achieved a historic victory in Nations League semi-finals (2-1). More enterprising and well in place, the French team turned the evening around for the better just before the break.
On a free kick returned by the opposing defense, Kadidiatou Diani opened the scoring with a clear recovery (41st). Then Sakina Karchaoui doubled the lead on a penalty in added time (45th+2). The French made their task much easier thanks to decisive pressing when they lost the ball to prevent the Germans from getting into the game. It was precisely on a very high recovery from Eugénie Le Sommer in the feet of an opponent that Grace Geyoro, cut out by Lena Oberdorf, obtained the 2-0 penalty.
1/2 final: Kadidiatou Diani opens the French score
Thanks to the free kick awarded to the Blues shortly before the end of the first half, Kadidiatou Diani made a magnificent recovery to score the first French goal. France leads 1-0 against Germany. – ()
A decisive activity coupled with the usual precepts of the current coach. While Eugénie Le Sommer’s multiple crosses struggled to find Marie-Antoinette Katoto at the start of the game, the Blues broke away, as often, from a set piece, with the added bonus of Diani’s first goal in seven games. To then better focus on the solidity of their defense, where the lack of common benchmarks between Griedge Mbock and Maëlle Lakrar, holder in the absence of Wendie Renard, was rarely felt.
The Blues knew how to keep their backs round
And this, despite a stressful last ten minutes. Logically summoned before the match, the old demons of French football still almost came out of the closet. Executioner of the Blue in the semi-final of the last Euro, Alexandra Popp hit the crossbar (72nd), before Giulia Gwinn found the fault. The latter revived German hopes by converting a penalty following a handball from Amandine Henry in her own area. But that was not enough for German coach Horst Hrubesch, whose final shot on goal had frozen the French during the night in Seville in 1982, to play a bad trick on the Blues again.
1/2 final: Germany scores a penalty thanks to Giulia Gwinn
In the 80th minute, the referee awarded Germany a penalty because of a handball in the penalty area. It was the German Giulia Gwinn who opened the scoring for Horst Hrubesch’s team. France still leads 2-1. – ()
This difficult end to the match will not overshadow the many good news of the evening. Delphine Cascarino returned to the Blues nine months after her serious knee injury, while the 30,267 spectators at Groupama Stadium, inevitably enthusiastic about the outcome of the match, broke a new attendance record in France for a women’s match (excluding the World Cup), in a stadium which nevertheless remained half empty.
Thanks to this convincing success, the France team will compete in the final of the League of Nations, the first in its history in official competition. To finally win a trophy in nearly fifty-three years of existence, the Blues will challenge the Spanish world champions in Seville on Wednesday. For its part, Germany will try to get its ticket to the Olympics in the small final against the Netherlands.