The French women’s football team, during the penalty shootout against Australia, in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, in Brisbane (Australia), Saturday August 12, 2023. FRANCK FIFE / AFP
Sport is no exception: the winners write history. However, the French women’s football team has never won anything, and only a title will allow it to give life to its own story. Unhappy as stones after another failure in the quarter-finals of a World Cup, Saturday August 12, against Australia, the Blues may not have lost everything at the end of the dramatic penalty shootout of Brisbane (0-0, 7-6 pens). 16,500 kilometers from Paris, this defeat could write the first lines of a new chapter, which they hope will finally be victorious.
Read also: Article reserved for our 2023 World Cup subscribers: the disillusionment of the Bleues, again turned back at the gates of the last four
For a month, in Australia – according to the official historiography of the Habs – a group of female footballers with a united spirit was forged. Far from the unspoken and tensions of the previous era, trust would have germinated between the players, and between the latter and their staff, who for the most part discover women’s football.
This pretty preamble in no way erases the implacable result: in Australia, the French women did not fulfill the objective of the last four which had been set for them, and did not do better than in 2019, under the aegis of Corinne Deacon. But before knowing how to win, you often have to lose. The Blues of 1998 thus failed in 1996 to better win two years later. Those of 2018 dropped in 2014 and 2016 to better build their future successes. So why could Hervé Renard’s band – only formed a few months ago – have lost in 2023 to triumph in 2024 during an Olympic tournament that it will play in front of its audience?
A click against Brazil
In July, however, the southern adventure got off to a bad start when, a few days after a worrying defeat in a warm-up match (1-0 against Australia), captain Wendie Renard’s teammates laboriously entered the tournament. Hooked by very athletic Jamaicans, then surprising eighth finalists, the Blues were initially worried.
Faced – already – to play their future against the formidable Brazilians, the French women took their destiny in hand, supported by the speech full of confidence from their coach. “After Jamaica, we were very disappointed, and this disappointment led to a spontaneous meeting, says midfielder Grace Geyoro. Strong words came out. We said to ourselves that we no longer had a choice and that we had to let go. » At 28, Kadidiatou Diani, author of four goals at this World Cup, had never seen this: “These are new things. We showed our determination. We talked. »
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