Women’s Euro 2022 – French team – Selma Bacha and Clara Matéo, the dream supersubs of the Blue

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

As the Blues started to stick out their tongues, Deacon pulled out two secret weapons from the bench. A choice that does not come from nowhere. Since the start of the competition, the French coach has clearly identified these two as the 12th and 13th players in the squad, even if she denies it. Against the Netherlands, it was her standard team, the one she had been building for several months now, which was chosen to start, Melvine Malard only replacing Marie-Antoinette Katoto at the forefront.

For the rest, all the inmates were there, a way of confirming that Deacon was overtaken by the challenge but that she had done everything to put her luxury replacements in the best possible conditions. And that they answered present. “They could have started but we know that when they come back, they bring a plus“, she justified after the fact. “It’s important for us especially at the end of matches when the opposing team starts to get tired.confirmed Charlotte Bilbaut on Sunday. Clara can set fire, like Selma put it yesterday“. Zoom on two supersubs who assume themselves.

Bacha, dynamite and an incredible left foot

• His playing time on this Euro : 183 minutes

Above all, the young Lyonnaise never seemed taken by the challenge. In the matter, Deacon’s management will have been important. Apart from three minutes against Belgium and her tenure as a left-back against Iceland, it was at this winger position that she chose to launch her wisp. “When you have a coach who trusts you and always finds the right words, going into a game like that, without pressure, and playing my football, there’s nothing better.relished Bacha after the quarter. She spoke to me well, told me to do what I knew how to do“.

She did it. And, against Germany, it is still in this role of joker that we should see her. Especially since it allows Cascarino to find his right wing, a story of permanently martyring the opposing left side, already traumatized in most cases by his duel with Diani.

“Selma made very good comebacks, she impressed merecognized Eyquem, who used it more as a side in his time. I liked seeing her come from afar, with speed, she has that quality. In 3-5-2 for example, it is the perfect piston, generous in the effort. But she does not have the profile of Delphine or Kadi who can eliminate one-on-one. Although with Selma, we can expect anything“.

Matéo, the last pass option

• His playing time on this Euro : 210 minutes

Let’s start with the things that annoy: Saturday, against the Netherlands, Clara Matéo failed to maintain her series: in her last five matches in Blue, she had delivered five assists. Against the Batavians, his pass in the interval does not appear anywhere in the statistics. It is however the one who decides the fate of the Blue, by sending Diani in the back of the Dutch defense, causing this saving penalty.

An action that ultimately sums up the Paris FC player very well. Rather middle in a trident with the France team, she played her season as an attacker. It is finally this N.10 flocked in her back in Blue that defines her best. In support of a center forward, she sees the game before everyone else and knows how to provoke passes with a line. Griedge Mbock and Melvine Malard, scorers on offerings from him, can testify to this.

His more offensive profile than Geyoro thus offers a real option to Corinne Deacon when it comes to forcing the opposing lock. It is with this in mind that she started him against Belgium and then against Iceland. Establishing her means taking the risk of an unbalanced environment, probably too forward-looking. Bringing it in is the assurance of a real threat to the opponent while the opposing bodies are getting tired.

“She really has a very good vision of the game, she very often manages to find passes in the interval that hurt the opponentadmitted Diani on Sunday. It has improved enormously compared to previous years. Since the start of the competition, it has really been decisive“. Less solar in everyday life than Selma Bacha, Matéo has the charm of discreet people who shine with their football IQ. Engineer on a daily basis, which earned her the nickname “group nerd“According to Geyoro, she finds answers when others ask too many questions.

The others, less supersubs, no less essential

Against the Netherlands, the tonic entries into play by Marion Torrent and Ella Palis allowed Les Bleues to maintain a form of physical freshness without ever losing their grip on the game. Everything that Corinne Deacon hoped for, she who was advancing in 2019 having only “13 or 14 players can start“. In 2022, the figure has greatly increased even if a typical team is now emerging.

“We learn from past experiencesshe explained afterwards. Seeing certain competitions, we see that a team with a depth of bench, it is immediately more interesting. When you play 120 minutes, you realize how important it is. When you see the young Palis enter with all her audacity and all her nerve in the midfield when she was not even a starter in her club.. A Marion Torrent who was a starter a few months ago, who is today now Eve Perisset’s understudy, when you see the energy she put in when she entered… There’s no bitterness, the girls are part of this group“.