What is Spain, the Bleuets’ first opponent at the U20 World Cup, really worth?

While waiting for a possible France – Spain in the semi-final of the Euro football, the same poster will be on the menu for the first match of the U20 World Cup Saturday in Cape Town (2 p.m.). With much less uncertainty about the identity of the winner. Triple defending champion, theFrench U20 team in fact meets an Iberian team which is participating for the first time in this competition.

She gave herself the right to do so by winning the U20 Trophy, the equivalent of the U20 B World Cup, last year by beating Uruguay in the final (39-32). In 2023, France also inherited the winner of this U20 Trophy, Japan, which it logically swept aside (75-12).

“We should not underestimate them too much”

This year again, the objective will be for the Bleuets to pass as many points as possible to this team since only the first of the 3 groups and the best second, decided by the number of points then by the general goal average as a second criterion, will be qualified for the semi-finals.

How did they prepare for this meeting against this little-known adversary on the international scene? “We were able to recover images of two recent Spain matches,” says coach Sébastien Calvet. We have clear data on this team, which has quite a few players who play in France. Like all these emerging nations, we should not underestimate them too much because they are progressing very quickly.

A warm-up before New Zealand

But still ? “They have this Latin side which means that they will want to give us problems during the contact phases,” continues Calvet. Defensively, they are aggressive and will try to go very high to cut off the possibility of chaining movements and moving the ball. »

In front of them, Hugo Reus’ partners will also be able to recognize a few familiar faces. Nine players from this Spanish selection are in fact residents of French professional club training centers, including Toulouse players Hugo Pichardie and Lucien Richardis.

“The team that we field against Spain is what we imagine to be the big backbone of the one that will play against New Zealand,” assures Sébastien Calvet. This first match is important to enter the competition, find benchmarks and connections and also for the image that we will give to our future opponents. » Including the next one, the Baby Blacks, which will be of a completely different caliber.

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