Women’s Euro 2022 – French team – Sarr, Malard, Diani: how to replace Marie-Antoinette Katoto?

From our special correspondent in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

She blamed herself to the point of shouting her frustration very loudly. Friday, during training the day after the victory against Belgium, Melvine Malard ended the session with a finishing session alongside some partners who had not started a match in this Euro. While she had been rather skilful in front of the goal, one of her covers flew into the sky of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, causing her sound reaction. No coincidence as the choices that Corinne Deacon must now make could only be played out in details.

Ouleymata Sarr

26 ans
19 selections
5 buts
Playing time in this Euro: 103

His good preparation, punctuated by a double against Cameroon (4-0), pleads in his favor, but his waste in the last gesture Thursday could weigh. “She fought, she had chances, she narrowly missed but it’s not detrimental to the team. I think she made a good entrance. She put her heart into it, for us it’s important“, defended Corinne Deacon at a press conference.

Neither at PSG nor at OL, however, she has no automatism developed on a daily basis with Kadidiatou Diani or Delphine Cascarino. “Marie’s injury doesn’t change much for meshe explained on Friday. Either way, I was ready. You have to be ready for every game“.

Melvine Malard

22 ans
15 selections
4 buts
Playing time in this Euro: 39 minutes

Can the Blue supersub become a starter? His season in Lyon, where his association with Selma Bacha on the left tortured all European defenses, made it possible to measure how much his game had matured. Decisive, impactful and collective, Malard has a template capable of doing damage in depth.

In this Euro, it is on the left that she returned against Italy, a position she occupies at OL. But it is a versatile that has already proven itself in the axis. “For Euro U19, I only played as a striker, I finished top scorer“, she explained to us before the start of the competition. And in the absence of Ada Hegerberg, she also held the position in Lyon.

This season, she has scored 17 goals in 35 matches, proof that she is trigger-happy. Scorer against Cameroon in preparation (4-0), she had started… on the right wing. When we tell you that it is versatile.

Kadidiatou Diani

26 ans
73 selections
19 buts
Playing time in this Euro: 143 minutes

Diani in the axis? A sacrilege, no doubt, as the differences made by the Parisian on her right wing resemble weapons too lethal to part with. And yet, it would not necessarily be a novelty. At the start of her mandate, Corinne Deacon had thus tested the formula, in particular during a prestigious success against the USA in January 2019 with a double from the attacker.

With its fire support, its “Powerful” which she considered to be her strong point and her taste for depth, Diani can be a center forward of choice if the matches offer spaces in the opposing defenses. Conversely, against low blocks, her game back to goal seems too limited to become a real weapon.

Clara Mateo

24 ans
13 selections
2 buts
Playing time in this Euro: 66 minutes

Perhaps the fanciest option at the moment, but Clara Matéo knows how to do so many things on the pitch that nothing should be ruled out. A striker by training, the PFC player has kept this taste for goal as evidenced by her season (12 goals). Very precise technically, interesting against Belgium, it looks more like a N°10 than a N°9.

But the absence of Katoto may eventually push Deacon to establish a little more tricolor domination in the middle. In a false nine role, Matéo could free up space at his back for Cascarino and Diani rockets. Not the most likely but not necessarily the least sexy.

With Vincent Roussel