France beat Belgium 2-1, even if there would have been a chance to score more. Despite the poor performance, France won Group D.
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In Thursday’s evening match, France beat Belgium 2–1 in the European football championships. The match left a bitter taste for France for two reasons: a miserable performance and Marie-Antoinette Roofless injury.
Star forward Katoto limped off the field. The star striker’s knee, who started the match with his leg taped, gave out about a quarter of an hour into the game.
– A really bad thing for him. However, it looked pretty bad when you can’t reserve (weight on your leg). Otherwise, those cruciate ligament injuries are really common in women and unfortunately they have also occurred in these games, Urheilu’s expert Liisa-Maija Rautio said.
Despite their poor game performance, France was able to grab the group win when Thursday’s previous Italy-Iceland match ended in a draw.
– The result is good for France, but the coach cannot be satisfied with the performance. The game was lazy, and the further the match went, the weaker France was, expert Jani Honkavaara said.
See the goal summary of the match in the video below.
France was convincing throughout the first half with its attacking power, although only two goals were scored.
Kadidiatou Diani was able to score the lead in the 6th minute of the match. During the first half, it rained chances for France, but Belgium stayed in the game.
– At the beginning, it seemed that this would be a good training match for France, because the level difference was so big. France even played, but then weaknesses started to show, expert Honkavaara said during the break of the match.
Ten minutes before the break, Belgium surprised the French defense with some great passes. Tessa Wullaert passed behind the defensive line To Janice Caymanwho flashed the ball in from the front corner.
France took the lead again at the end of the next attack when Griedge Mbock Bathy succeeded from the post-corner situation. The score was 2-1 at the break.
– There was a lot of space inside the French defensive formation. Considering the next games, the matter needs to be fixed. Belgium was able to play quite freely in those spaces. I expected more goals from France, but Belgium squeezed their opponents, expert Rautio estimated at halftime.
The second half progressed leisurely, and there were hardly any good scoring opportunities. It wasn’t until the 86th minute of the match that things started to happen.
The French striker kicked towards the goal, but the shot was stopped by a Belgian defender Amber Tysia too on. After video review, the ball was put on the spot and Tysiak received his second yellow card of the match. Thus he was driven out.
A captain came to Laukoma Wendie Renardwhose weak shot by the goalkeeper Nicky Evrard repelled in front of him. The ball came back to Renard, who kicked the ball past the goal.
– I would underline that when you let yourself into such an indifferent mental state, it is reflected in these performances. In-game it’s really hard to reverse the alertness once it disappears. Yes, Renard was spinning his head after the game, Honkavaara said after the match.
16 opening goals have been scored in the European Championship with this match. No less than half of them were made during the first ten minutes of the match. 11 of the opening goals have been scored in the first 20 minutes. Only three times has the opening goal been scored in the second period.
– Here, the way you prepare for the game has an effect. Are we present in the first situations? Are all the initial routines in order? For example, Spain has been surprised twice in the opening minutes, so the team must be thinking carefully about how to prepare for the upcoming games, expert Jonne Kunnas said at halftime of the Italy-Iceland match.