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It is not at all normal for a defender to be the most diligent shooter in a football tournament. It is even more special that the number one in the statistics is a topper.
However, that has happened in the European Championship, which culminates this week.
French Wendie Renard has registered a total of 15 scoring attempts in his first four matches. The overwhelming majority of these have been bulldozer companies.
One explanatory factor is that the summer EC tournament has been a festival of headers. In general, a huge number of goals have been scored, before the semi-finals an average of more than three per game. An even more striking phenomenon has been the clear overrepresentation of hits made on top.
In the group stage and quarter-finals, 24 goals were already scored. In the two previous finals, a total of 27 were made. Centering balls have been in fashion. Special situations have been hard currency.
Players who manage in tight fighting situations in the penalty area, position themselves correctly, know how to time their rebounds and shoot cleanly, have been allowed to relax.
Even a layman can guess what happens when the 187-centimeter Renard aims for the ball. Experienced and determined Renard, who at least does not shy away from the weaker.
There isn’t a single player or coach in the EC tournament who doesn’t know how dangerous Renard is. Even cameramen and TV directors consciously seek him out for photos in connection with special situations. Then the opponent is rattling.
Guarding is a difficult balancing act in this case, says Urheilu’s expert Maija Saari.
– His presence forces the opponent to pay extra attention to marking. Also, it’s really hard to mark him because he’s so big and strong. That’s why he is often able to beat the guard anyway, says Saari.
If Renard is attempted to be taken out by one player, this player needs to be world class in main play to get to the same level. If he is guarded by two players, threatening space opens up elsewhere – and even then there is no guarantee that Renard won’t win the fight.
– Even if he is caught by two players, he is often able to come through and win balls, says Saari.
Renard’s solution is also unpredictable. More often than not, he wins the first ball and chooses what to do with it. A goal attempt is always possible, but Renard might also make his move to the back post and push the ball back across the goal line to cause further chaos for a teammate to finish from.
Showy aggressiveness
Renard turned 32 in the middle of the Games. He has been the regular face of the national team for almost 12 years. In Lyon, which became the pioneer of women’s teams in Europe, she has already had an impact for 16 years.
The work done in Lyon for the women’s representative team started a couple of years before Renard’s arrival. The championships started to be won in his first season, the last one came in May. In total, there are a staggering 15 French championships in Renard’s trophy cabinet. The superiority has continued on international pitches, as Renard has already helped Lyon win the Champions League eight times.
The top team has been a well-oiled machine, where Renard has been the most important bearing.
– He is really reachable and combined with the ability to play in the main, it brings a clear strength in defending the penalty area. At the same time, they make him an extremely valuable weapon in the offensive direction, Saari describes.
According to his playing position, Renard is still not good with goals and the account has not been opened for these games as well. For example, in the semi-finals of the Champions League, he scored two goals with which Lyon advanced to the final.
– I know what I’m capable of, especially in corner kicks and free kicks. At the beginning of my career, I saw my height as a weakness. Over the years, I’ve realized that you have to use it as an advantage. Now I know I’m a huge weapon in special situations. A common tone with the centralist also decides a lot. If I time my run correctly, the ball is in the goal, Renard has said On the Fifa website (you will switch to another service).
Last season, Renard won more than 82 percent of his head-to-head battles in the French premier league and recorded an average of seven possessions per match. He directs the game from the back lines with his voice and hands, and initiates attacks with his own feet.
With his ability to read the game, he dares to step up and also offer an additional passing option between the midfield and the defensive line.
– He has a good selection of passes of different lengths. He gives cross balls to the other side and forces the opponent to move. In addition, the shorter passes he uses to open France’s attacks are successful, says Saari.
Without the ball, Renard can bluntly push opponents aside thanks to his physical attributes. Even from a short distance behind, he can stretch his legs on the road.
At his most impressive, he plays boldly and aggressively slightly higher than the rest of the defensive line, as if coming against the game to cut off the opponent’s last pass attempt before the threat can even arise.
– In recent years, his certain weakness has been if you have to run towards your own goal. However, he times his runs correctly and is able to read and anticipate. In addition, with his reach, he tries to compensate for the fact that he might not be the fastest in the running competition, Saari continues.
Renard is an iron-fisted leader, which many hardly question. Nowadays, the position is driven by both experience and success, but he rose to the top through trying experiences.
Childhood was spent on the remote island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, in an even more remote village of 2,000 inhabitants. The father died when Renard was eight years old, and the mother was left to raise four daughters alone. Renard, on the other hand, left his home at the age of 14 when he went alone from the sunshine 8000 kilometers away to the cold of France in search of an academy place. It didn’t come off until the second try, after that I was plagued by homesickness for several years.
The path has been rocky and the story respectable. Twenty years later, Renard is a legend of French football, who silences the dressing room in an instant.
– I believe that if you cheat in life, it will sometimes come back to haunt you. I don’t think there are any easy matches. It’s our job to make sure they’re easy. Young players have to be given a lot of support, encouraged, and instilled with a work ethic. They need to understand that nothing happens by chance, that only hard work is rewarded. And that the rewards will come, even if you have to wait for them, Renard opened his philosophy For Fifa (you will switch to another service)in 2020.
Such a leadership figure is especially important for the French national team. Whether it’s a men’s or women’s tournament, there always seems to be something extra spark in the French camp. So too in this tournament, when the head coach Corinne Diacre quarreled with a few key players, and thus they were not selected for the competition team at all.
– Without knowing exactly what kind of relationship this team has with the coaching, there is at least a player who can be the glue in between both in terms of playing and unity. Through him, it is possible to have a conversation and he can communicate to the coaching about issues that need to be reacted to. If and when he succeeds in that role, it will certainly be the key to ensuring that the challenges in France do not affect the playing, says Maija Saari.
Renard has first-hand experience of messes, because at the worst, Diacre even took the captain’s armband from him, and the conflict did not remain behind closed doors. The intervals were ice cold in the catastrophic World Cup home games 2019 and in his autobiography Renard said that he even considered leaving the national team. According to Diacre, the dispute was finally settled in the office of the president of the French Football Federation. At least Renard got the captaincy back when it was his successor’s turn to argue with Diacre.
So far, there have been no signs of disagreement from the locker room. Instead, Renard has acted as a figurehead outwardly filtering France’s pressure to perform. Before the quarter-finals, there was even talk of a curse, as the country had never progressed to the top four at the European Championships.
– For years it has been said that we cannot overcome this obstacle. The media has been asking our players about it all week. So spiritually it can be in our mind. The goal is to focus on the match. The past is part of our story, but we will change that story together, Renard said L’Equipen (you will switch to another service) before the quarterfinals.
In the match against Holland, it also seemed that the disgusted tone of voice foreshadowed a particularly hungry performance. The pressures crushed the French team earlier on the World Cup stage, and the topper didn’t let it happen again.
At the break, the success rate of tackles and the winning percentage of duel situations – both in the air and on the field surface – were both full hundreds. Renard had as many scoring attempts as the entire Dutch team.
– I don’t think that everyone in the audience and in the media knows how to appreciate how much Wendie Renard affects the match with her playing, leadership and professionalism, who coached in Lyon Gérard Precheur Has said Uefan (you switch to another service) by.
The curse was broken and on the road to the final place is Germany, which clearly presents the toughest challenge.
Germany has scored five main goals in their four matches of the European Championship. Its captain Alexandra Popp has put the ball into the goal three times already and, according to Maija Saarenki, could become a perfect fighting pair for Renard as an attacker.
– The strengths of both are in the main game. Germany wants to play for Poppi as well, so the duel continues even outside the penalty area. How is Renard able to make it difficult for Poppi to control the ball higher up the pitch with his own reach?
France will face Germany in the semifinals of the European Championship on Wednesday from 22:00. The live broadcast of the match starts at 21:15 on TV2, Areena and the app. Bet on the opening goal scorer of the match in Futistietäjä and win a technical ball!