At least the Bleuets have some ideas. And a strong mind to support them. Twice behind, the France Espoirs team managed to snatch a draw (2-2) against the eye-catching Belgians on Monday in Valenciennes in a preparation match for Euro-2023.
Three days after a nice success (1-0) in Germany, the Bleuets, deprived of many executives called up to the A, were less inspired. Without Benoît Badiashile, Eduardo Camavinga, Adrien Truffert and William Saliba, selected by Didier Deschamps for the last gathering of world champions before the World Cup, Sylvain Ripoll’s players have often been in difficulty against solid Imps that they could find again. next summer during the Euro in Romania and Azerbaijan.
Poor in the first period, the France team nevertheless rectified the situation after the break, notably under the impetus of Rayan Cherki. “The first period was placed under the sign of passivity. There were some very good things in Germany (1-0 victory on Friday, editor’s note), and three days later we are much less satisfied, even if we must salute the reaction in the second half. She has the merit of being there but she is disorganized,” lamented Ripoll.
At the start of the game, the Tricolores showed a lot of technical waste, unlike more sharp Belgians, like the Rennais Jérémy Doku, very leggy on his left side. After a rather dull first half hour, the match finally got carried away with a strike from Ramazani deflected for a corner by Yahia Fofana (33rd). A few minutes later, the second opportunity was good for the player from Almeria, who took over a cross from Doku (0-1, 41st).
On returning from the locker room, the entry of Rayan Cherki in place of Arnaud Kalimuendo energized the Bleuets attack. The Lyonnais quickly proved to be decisive: after almost scoring on a curled shot narrowly deflected by the Belgian goalkeeper (50th), he turned into a passer on the next corner by depositing the ball on the head of Tanguy Nianzou Kouassi (1-1, 51st).
The French, dominating, were however surprised shortly after: served in the area, Verschaeren placed the ball between the legs of Fofana to restore the advantage to the Devils (1-2, 58th). Les Bleuets then moved on and ended up being rewarded. Cherki made an opening in the area for Elye Wahi, who popped up to equalize (2-2, 77th).
Then they thought they regained the advantage when Nathan Ngoumou scored with a header, but the assistant raised his flag for an offside by Wahi (83rd). After a fine save from Fofana on a free kick from Aster Vranckx (85th) and a cannonball on the crossbar from Ignace Van der Brempt (86th), Georginio Rutter had the match point at the end of his foot but he sent his volley above (90th + 2).
