Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines (France) (AFP)

After a World Cup ended on a disappointment against the Americans and internal dissonance, the time is remobilization: the Blue want to take advantage of the friendly match against Spain Saturday in Clermont-Ferrand (21:00) to display their unit.

For if the World Championship at home has given women's football an unprecedented exhibition, it ended in a tense atmosphere among French women. After the elimination against the USA from the quarters, the coach Corinne Deacon publicly criticized her attacker Eugénie Le Sommer, accused on TF1 of not having respected the instructions.

Still sounded, the attacker spoke this week in the media: "I think I would have fallen off my couch if I watched live" this interview, she let loose on RMC. "I'm not someone who does not follow the instructions, it's hard to hear that, but, well, she said what she had to say, it was her feeling."

At the time, the president of the Olympique Lyonnais Jean-Michel Aulas, also member of the executive committee of the Federation, had responded sharply to Corinne Deacon, reproaching him for "being out of the institutional and professional framework".

At the beginning of the week, the coach came back to the incident: "I have taken note of what he said, I continue to learn the codes and the rules of communication.Nobody is infallible, we can all Make mistakes Who does not make mistakes in communication, even at the level of our leaders? "

- "Not a failure" -

The France team now wants to turn this page, finding the ground. The President of the Federation Noël Le Graët also came to lunch Wednesday in Clairefontaine to remobilize the blue troops.

"He was able to find the words to motivate us, he was happy with what we did at the World Cup, and he told us that it was not a failure because we managed to win the heart of the French, "said Montpellier player Marion Torrent.

On the edge of a new season (the championship of France opened last weekend) and now that the World seems digested, the Blue want to close the ranks and focus on themselves.

"We know Spain: it's collective, possession, play in small spaces, so we will focus our preparation on ourselves," said midfielder Charlotte Bilbault. "We will have to set up our game, launch counters".

At the World Cup, "we lived for two months together, it was a great adventure, it's important to find that again, so we hope we can still show some beautiful pictures from Saturday. It happened during the World Cup, but we talk about it less and less.The goal now is to use the mistakes that we made to work together on the next goals " .

The Blue having missed the qualification for the Tokyo-2020 Games because of their premature elimination at the World Cup in July, they will have no real sporting challenge before the Euro-2021 in England.

For Corinne Dacre, this friendly match on Saturday in Clermont is a nice wink, since she began her coaching career in Ligue 2, becoming the first woman on the sidelines of a professional men's team. La France.

© 2019 AFP