Rude, cold. Like the climate, the French seemed numb in their first qualifying match for Euro 2021 on Tuesday night in Kazakhstan that they ended up winning 3-0, against a much weaker opponent. We expected a rain of goals. But, carried by his goalkeeper Oxana Zheleznyak, imperial despite the two goals conceded, Kazakhstan offered a great resistance to a team from France probably still tired of the long journey, which returned to the competition after "his" World Cup.
Anyway, and despite the goals of Valerie Gauvin (56th), Eugenie Le Sommer (70th), and a last of the nugget Paris Marie-Antoinette Katoto (89th), the Blue served a cold match.
Katoto, striking return
In the depths of the former USSR, the queen of the evening should have been Eugénie Le Sommer: by scoring the second French goal (70th), the center forward of Lyon, captain in the absence of Amandine Henry, came close to a small unit in Marinette Pichon's national team goals record (81). She even nearly matched him in the 85th, throwing herself to catch a ball released by Zheleznyak. But she will have another chance in the next match of the Blue against Serbia in a month.
In its place, we note the return of Princess "Marie-Antoinette": removed from the French team for seven months, Katoto, the serial-scorer of PSG, 20 years and best scorer of the last championship in France, registered his second goal in Blue for his sixth selection. It was difficult, but the main thing is there: the Bleues scored three times and won their first match on the long road qualifying that will lead them to the Euro in 2021 in England. The first of a new cycle, after the disappointment of the World Cup.