After a lackluster group stage, the French team players will face Belgium in the last 16 of the Euro.
A confrontation that promises to be as tight as it is uncertain.
Didier Deschamps’ players are preparing for all scenarios, including those in which the match could drag on or even go to penalties.
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Euro 2024
A lesson painfully learned. During its last two major competitions, the French team was eliminated during the terrible penalty shootout. She first lost, against all expectations, against Switzerland in the round of 16 of Euro 2021, before seeing her dreams of a world double be shattered by Argentina one evening in December 2022. These two disappointments have visibly left their mark on the French, who seem to have changed their approach to this fateful exercise before their duel against Belgium (Monday July 1, 6 p.m., live on TF1 and TF1+ and live with commentary on TF1Info) .
“Of course, we think about it. We have worked on it.”declares French defender Ibrahima Konaté, at a press conference this Saturday. “Afterwards, the penalties… if the goalkeeper dives on the right side… there is always a luck factor. And then the conditions in a match can never be reproduced. But we are working on it”assures the Liverpool player, who was at the Lusail stadium when the hopes of a third star were shattered. A choice that contrasts with the position that Didier Deschamps has long held, skeptical of the idea of being able to reproduce in advance the conditions of these few minutes under high pressure.
Mike Maignan as an X factor?
Beyond these training sessions, the Blues also have a new ace up their sleeve in the person of Mike Maignan. The AC Milan goalkeeper is, in fact, much more comfortable on penalties than his predecessor, Hugo Lloris, in the French goal. Particularly dissuasive at his height of one meter ninety-one, the 29-year-old goalkeeper (19 caps) has turned aside 11 of the 54 penalties conceded in the professional ranks (20.3%), according to the Transfermarkt website. With the jersey bearing the rooster on his shoulders, he is currently at one success for two failures (33% of saves). For comparison, the former Tottenham player, who retired from international football (145 caps), has only turned aside 10 of the 106 shots conceded (9.43%). With the national team, his record is just as meager (3/21, or 14%).
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Suffice to say that even if the French will seek to make the difference before reaching that point – “we prefer to finish the match before the penalties”according to William Saliba – they have some serious arguments to put forward in this matter. Belgium, which has never yet won against its neighbour in a major international competition, has been warned.
