Women’s football Euro 2022 qualifying
Divided French side reach the finals
In the end it was straightforward. A typically imperious Wendie Renard header and France were off and running towards a 3-0 win over Austria. After months of rows they had booked their place at the COVID-delayed European Championship finals, to be held in England in the summer of 2022.
Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Iceland and Belgium have also qualified. A further eight places are still to be determined, but of the teams at Euro 2017, only Scotland have been eliminated, while no debutants are confirmed as yet.
Few surprises then, but for France progress was not as smooth as it should have been.
Les Bleues are the great chokers of women’s football. For eight successive tournaments they have flattered to deceive – arriving as contenders, departing unfulfilled. It is a team of serial winners built around the great Lyon side, but when they pull on the cockerel something goes awry.
They are yet to appear in a major final and since reaching the 2012 Olympic semi-finals have fallen in the quarter-finals at two World Cups, two European Championships and one Olympics. It is a very thin return for a nation of such talent.
Inevitably such a record prompts anxieties and tension. Corinne Diacre is the fourth coach in seven years and having exited at the quarter-finals in 2019’s home-hosted Women’s World Cup there is pressure upon her.
The stress of results has, however, been exacerbated by a falling out with several high-profile Lyon players including her captain, Amandine Henry, predecessor Renard, goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi and all-time record scorer Eugenie Le Sommer.
The latter was the first to express discontent. Criticised for not following team tactics by Diacre after France’s World Cup loss to the USA, Le Sommer said later: “I think I would have fallen off my couch if I was watching live,” adding she was not one to disobey instructions.
Renard’s book My Star then revealed her lingering anger at the manner in which Diacre took the captaincy from her in 2017. Diacre, said Renard, told her: “You are at 40 per cent of your capacities in the French team. In Lyon, you walk, the level is easy, in the European Cup too, but the international level, you have not yet crossed it”. Renard said she was “stunned”, adding: “Four years of captaincy swept away in less than five minutes.”
Diacre said at the time Renard “will never be captain as long as I am here, she’s just a player like any other”. Noel Le Graet, federation president, brokered an uneasy truce but peace was short-lived as veteran goalkeeper Bouhaddi then declared she would not play again under Diacre. “I would bet both my hands getting cut off that
France won’t win the Euros if Diacre stays in charge,” she said later.
When Le Graet congratulated Lyon on winning the Champions League in September, the players took the opportunity to express their discontent with Diacre. A month later Henry was dropped from the squad. The conversation, she said, “lasted 14 or 15 seconds,” adding: “I will remember it for the rest of my life. I was shocked. She said, ‘Amandine, you know my list comes out tomorrow. You won’t be on it in light of your recent performances.’ I was silent for two seconds. And then I said, ‘Okay. Have a good game. Goodbye.’”
Speaking on Canal+, Henry said she believed she had been dropped because of the complaint to Le Graet. She was also critical of the atmosphere during the World Cup and called for a summit between players, staff and president, adding: “The time to fix the problems is now, not in three years.”
Without Henry the team were held to a goalless draw in Austria, leaving the pair level with 16 points apiece and two matches left. This ended a run of 32 straight wins in qualifying and L’Equipe, the French sports paper, in a rare front page on the women’s team, asked whether Diacre could survive.
France last lost a qualifier in 2007, scoring 216 goals and conceding eight since, so few expected them to lose to Austria. Nevertheless Le Graet stated the best players should be picked. Diacre recalled Henry and gave her the armband. But there were reports of a confrontation during camp and Henry was substituted after an hour.
Victory, and qualification, eased the pressure on Diacre, who subsequently picked only Amel Majri from Lyon for the Group G dead rubber against Kazakhstan. Renard and Henry watched
Les Bleues are the great chokers of women’s football. For eight successive tournaments they have flattered to deceive – arriving as contenders, departing unfulfilled
from the bench as France won 12-0.
There was less drama elsewhere. The Dutch took in their stride the news that coach Sarina Wiegman would be switching to England after the Olympics, racking up 48 goals in ten matches. In Group B the Danes, beaten finalists in 2017, secured qualification with a 3-1 win in Empoli against Italy, their only serious challengers.
The key contest in Group C was between Norway and Wales. The two-time champions edged both matches 1-0 and Wales were then denied a play-off spot after being held to a brace of draws by Northern Ireland. The latter, beaten 6-0 home and away by Norway, went through courtesy of scoring two away goals to one in their head-to-head. Ultimately Ashley Hutton’s 94th-minute equaliser in Newport was the difference.
Sweden won Group F ahead of Iceland who have nevertheless qualified as a best runner-up. Group H went to the last game. Switzerland’s 2-1 defeat of Belgium gave them the advantage but they dropped points in Croatia then fell to a heavy defeat in Leuven.
Germany were never in any danger in Group I, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg being able to experiment as they romped to a perfect record. An astonishing 22 different players shared their 46 goals.
Two groups remain undecided. In Group D Poland need to win in Spain to make the play-offs, but that is a tall order. A draw will send La Roja through and the Czechs into the play-offs. Scotland went out in Group E after losing back-to-back fixtures against Portugal and Finland with Shelley Kerr forced to coach via Zoom after testing positive for the virus. Finland’s home tie with Portugal will decide who qualifies automatically.
Two more runners-up will qualify automatically, the others will play-off for the final three places. Then there is a long wait to the finals, maybe even long enough for the French to find a rapprochement. As Le Graet said: “Being in conflict with the best players in France is not sustainable.”