The day after the semi-final against Denmark, the faces of Sébastien Gardillou's players still seem marked by their first defeat, on the verge of a third consecutive final in a major competition. We must nevertheless move forward to obtain a bronze medal, more than honorable in these European Championships.
The night was difficult for the Blues and the words, during the last meeting with the media, were strong in expressing their immense pain at seeing their path stop before the final. But the Blues came across a Danish team which was able to find the resources to counter their game. Between an iron defense, an impassable goalkeeper and a masterful withdrawal, Jesper Jensen and his players deserved their place in the final against the great Norwegians. For their part, the Blues did not have the opportunity to develop their game in large spaces and came up against a very mobile defense at six meters, without being able to send long shots. Tomorrow, the Blues will have to find solutions against the Hungarians, who will approach the match with the desire to win a new medal, after 12 years of drought. Thoughts of Euro 2022, in Ljubljana, inevitably resurface, let's hope that desire will prevail over apprehension.
Grace Zaadi Deuna: “I will admit to you that the night was short and difficult, one where you rehash a lot of things from the match. You have to leave your head behind and play with your heart. We are going to do everything to get this bronze medal. We are necessarily disappointed, but I think that the time is not to draw conclusions straight away, but rather to remobilize directly and prepare for Hungary. It would be a huge disappointment for us to come out without a medal and that would remind us, for some, the Euro 2022 which we had very badly experienced and we will try to enter this 3/4 match differently, than two years ago. I preferred not to watch the match, otherwise I would have done so. a sleepless night or a tachycardia I went to bed late because I didn't want to sleep, my brain was in turmoil. There is also this desire to not want to sleep because in the morning, when I wake up, the. first thought is “damn, we lost”. It's a new day, I'm going to try to digest and recover as best as possible and prepare myself to be at full strength. It's exactly the same configuration as in 2022, it's been years since the Hungarians had a medal, in the future, I think they will be able to claim to have more, but for that it could be their only opportunity to get a medal, like Montenegro two years ago. They will have nothing to lose, where we have more to lose since we were aiming for another color of medal, on a totally different energy. You will have to put all your feelings aside so as not to end up in the same state of mind as two years ago.”
Chloe Valentini: “It's always difficult to sleep after a match, but even more so after last night. I didn't watch the match, but I thought about the scenario, the pace, the failures, and why we played this match, why I played this match But, this morning, I want to tell myself that there are more serious things in life, and that if you agree to play, you also accept to lose. There's still one medal to go for and I don't have it neither is this one, it's a European Championship match, we can't neglect it. There are supporters who have come from far away and for the girls who are next to me, I want to. 'go get her. We all have to be in this positive energy to find some smiles and strength. It's going to be a big match, different from the one five days ago. rest, let us discuss among ourselves to reproduce the things that worked against Hungary and rectify those which worked less well in order to arrive at this match with the aim of giving everything to return home with a medal”.
“There is a lot to do to win this match tomorrow, but I hope we will be compact in defense and more present in the pivot, which we lacked in the first match. We need to be more efficient in attack to convert the chance we have I hope we will play at our best level to hope to get third place in the Euro”, Petra Simon.
Hatadou Says: “After a defeat like yesterday, we have to try to ruminate as little as possible because we still have one match left. For the Hungarians, it's now or never to start their medal counter. They will arrive full with rage, as they did throughout the competition. We too are keen to get this bronze medal, even if it was not the one we aspired to when we came. It's important to end this competition with a victory, it would be really sad to go home without this positive note. We gained strength, we won all our matches, except this last one. We really took the time to communicate together, to try to find the moments. where we failed to find answers, which we had found, moreover, on the ground, but which we failed to resolve and put in place. Hungary will come determined, they are playing at 100. % this match.”
Sébastien Gardillou: “I looked at what didn't work and what could be changed in the very short term to be able to engage in the best possible way in this quest for the bronze medal. We were very bothered by Iversen at the inside, but also in the 7 against 6 game, but we managed the 7 against 5 very well, excellently even. I think we fell a little short in the game on the big space Elles. countered us well by folding back perfectly and we did not try to respect what we had been able to put in place in previous matches such as the spacing and the depth in this ability to advance the ball quickly. We had a tendency to delay too much in certain cases. moments, with comfort dribbling and we didn't know how to return the ball to the right players at the right time. Was it their withdrawal which was optimized, I think so, and it was also us who. we have not succeeded in reiterating this that we did against Sweden In the final gesture, we also had too many failures against a very good goalkeeper. I'm not Golovin (editor’s note: the Hungarian coach)but when I see things that interest me in others, I try to replicate them as much as possible. We were very troubled on the right sector of our defense. We intended to bother Elver Hageso, but Hojlund played a lot. We have not sufficiently isolated the skill of Anne Mette Hansen in this competition and what she was able to produce in the match. For each thing used when it is positive we reuse it, when it is negative, it allows me to remedy it. I don’t know if the time will be enough, but the desire is there.”
In Vienna, Thomas Mathiot
