Murska Sobota (Slovenia) (AFP)
The France team, on Tuesday (9:00 p.m.) in Slovenia, is looking for a new balance after the promotion as captain of Wendie Renard, a respected executive whose mission will be to take the Blue to Euro-2022 by limiting the turbulence with Corinne Deacon.
The coach made a spectacular turnaround by giving the armband to the Lyonnaise, despite the disputes of the past.
The stupor evacuated, remains to be seen how the team will digest it.
"It will take us a little bit of time despite everything, to her, to me, to us, to the group. But we have this time, since we have ten months to prepare for the Euro", underlined Deacon at the time of announcing the news, Thursday on the eve of the re-entry match in Greece (10-0).
The difficulty will come from the "relational side, where it will take more effort. After that, things will come naturally. We must not put pressure on ourselves. She knows what I think, I told her anyway, and we will continue to speak quietly, "Renard lingered after the large victory in Patras, where she scored a goal.
- "Raise our level of requirement" -
More than adversity on the ground, it is internal affairs that will set the temperature for the Blues as the European Championship approaches, to be played next July in England.
On the green rectangle side, in fact, the French will hardly be in difficulty, with a qualifying group for the 2023 World Cup largely within their reach.
Slovenia, 49th nation in the Fifa rankings, will not represent a big threat on Tuesday in the small stadium of Murska Sobota (northeast), hidden behind a forest and a bumpy lawn.
The coach of the Bleues Corinne Deacon gives signs to her players against Germany, June 10, 2021 in Strasbourg PATRICK HERTZOG AFP / Archives
Beware, however, "not to underestimate the opponent", it will probably "still increase our level of requirement", warned Deacon Monday.
"I hear everywhere that it's easy to score ten goals, it's not easy."
The coach, with a full squad, did not want to say what degree of rotation would be practiced.
Kenza Dali, Viviane Asseyi and Melvine Malard in particular came into play on Friday and knocked on the door of the starting XI, like the unused players in Patras: Elisa De Almeida and Perle Morroni in defense, Delphine Cascarino, Sandy Baltimore and Valérie Gauvin in attack.
The captain's armband, on the other hand, won't leave Wendie Renard's left arm.
- A relieved group -
The coach's outstretched hand brought peace to a group shaken by the sidelining of former captain Amandine Henry, and by that, more recent, of striker Eugenie Le Sommer.
"It did us all good," said Parisian Marie-Antoinette Katoto in Greece, praising the "natural" leadership of Renard.
Give him the armband, "it's normal, let's say."
The players of the France team, during a friendly match against Germany in Strasbourg, June 10, 2021 PATRICK HERTZOG AFP / Archives
By jostling the executives of the group, Deacon "destabilized all the players" by ricochet, reports a source in their entourage.
Give the armband back to "someone legitimate, that nobody will question", "the players needed that", she continues.
The girls "try to be positive, they want to win the Euro together and bring France, a strong nation in women's football, a first title".
This choice also relieves Marion Torrent, Aïssatou Tounkara and Charlotte Bilbault, presented by Deacon as possible captains this season, from a cumbersome responsibility.
Will the scratches exchanged by Deacon and Renard for four years leave traces?
Or will time succeed in fading the scars?
At the start of her term in 2017, the coach withdrew the Lyonnaise armband, bluntly according to the player.
The 31-year-old Martiniquaise recounted her moods in a book.
"We have had very few relations during the past three years", she admitted Friday, promising, however, to make "efforts both".
Happy to have "the support of everyone", the historic captain of OL does not intend to "revolutionize anything at all".
To regain normality, among the Blue, would already be a small revolution.
© 2021 AFP