Gyor (Hungary) (AFP)

Mission accomplished and see you ... end of May: The France Espoirs team easily beat Iceland 2-0 in Györ (Hungary), qualifying Wednesday for the quarter-finals of the Euro, where she will face the Netherlands.

The Bleuets therefore finished second in Group C, they erased their inaugural defeat against Denmark and the goal has been reached.

But they only confirmed in bits and pieces the immense potential that is attributed to them.

The final phase, filled with big names (Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal ...) will be on another level.

For the French, it will therefore be the Netherlands, on May 31 in Budapest.

There are a few well-known names in this team, which beat Germany in Group A, such as those of Lille Botman, Parisian Bakker or Justin Kluivert, Patrick's son, who passed through Ajax Amsterdam and AS Rome and today in Leipzig.

Since their success on Sunday against Russia (2-0), Sylvain Ripoll's players knew they had only to beat Iceland, a formality a priori, to be sure of returning to Hungary at the end. of spring.

The start of the match, however, was not easy against the fierce Icelanders despite the departure of four of their best, who joined the A selection.

But despite the hesitations of the first quarter of an hour and a certain slowness, the Bleuets very logically made their considerable technical superiority speak.

Dominating Sunday against Russia, Ikoné was this time well taken, but others took over, like Captain Guendouzi, again titular and pumped up, or Badiashile, beaming behind, in the defensive duel as in the relaunch.

- Control and control -

After a few safe approach maneuvers, Guendouzi finally put an end to the opposing resistance in the 17th minute by taking up a close cross from Claude-Maurice, well launched in depth by Dagba.

Shortly before the break, in the 38th minute, Edouard then doubled the stake with a nice stung ball after a new deep serve, this time signed Maouassa.

With 17 goals in 13 caps for the Bleuets, Celtic Glasgow center forward continues to heal his statistics, which make him the top scorer in the history of this team.

Two goals ahead at the break, there was no longer any real suspense as to the qualification of Ripoll's men, or their position in Group C, since at the same time, Denmark led by the same score against Russia and consolidated its first place (3-0 finally).

The second period was therefore only control and mastery.

It allowed Ripoll to continue to rotate its workforce, including a sharp entry from Camavinga.

Given the impressive quality of this workforce, this qualification obtained after three matches very unequally mastered is nothing exceptional.

But she confirms after the semi-final of 2019 that the results of the Espoirs have returned to a certain normality after years of fiascos of all kinds.

From now on, they must also have ambition.

Their Euro is not over, just interrupted.

The rest is in two months, with a list that will certainly be different from that of the first phase.

With the Euro des A, the final phase of the Euro-Espoirs then the Olympic Games, the French teams will in any case be very busy from the end of May.

© 2021 AFP