Clément Pédron, Media365, published on Tuesday December 3, 2024 at 11:38 p.m.
A few days after its friendly victory against Nigeria (2-1), France faced a completely different caliber with the reception of Spain, the reigning world champion. This Tuesday evening, the Tricolores were no match even if there were some good things (2-4).
Laurent Bonadei, the coach of the French women's team, wanted to test things during these friendly matches a few weeks before the start of the Nations League. You will have understood, alternate game systems and see as many players as possible to be able to close the year 2024 with some certainties. And if last Saturday's test went well for the Tricolores, with a victory against Nigeria (2-1), the Blues had more difficulty with their opponent this Tuesday evening. And for good reason, Spain, a reigning world champion nation. And faced with this selection, it is better to be ready from the start. And precisely, the French were not since they conceded two goals signed Bonmati and Pina after only 23 minutes of play. This bad habit brought to mind a statistic: France has conceded a goal in 13 different matches in 2024 , a record for a calendar year in its history. This represents 81% of Les Bleues matches without a clean sheet in 2024, the highest proportion over a year since 1989.
This scenario in any case forced the Tricolores to get back into it and although clumsy at first, they managed to reduce the gap thanks to an own goal from Mendez following a cross from Becho . In the process, Karchaoui and Geyoro also had opportunities to allow France to take the lead before the break.
Progress to be made on the tactical level
In the second period, Laurent Bonadei's players repeated the same start to the half, suffering enormously. And if the first attempt was stopped by the goalkeeper of the French team, the latter was unable to do anything against Lucia Gardia on the hour mark (1-3, 60'). Despite the superiority of Spain, France did not give up and was rewarded by a further reduction in the gap signed by Diani (2-3, 71') before again giving in ten minutes later with a penalty scored by Mariona (2-4, 81'). In the mixed zone after the match, Laurent Bonadei did not seek to question the superiority of the evening's opponent but wanted to highlight the state of mind of his players. See you now on February 21, 2025 against Norway for the first day of the Women's Nations League.
