Latest news with #SakinaKarchaoui
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Euro 2025: Cascarino shines in France's big win to eliminate the Netherlands and top tough group
Netherlands' Chasity Grant, right, and France's Sakina Karchaoui fall to the ground during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Sandie Toletti, right, scores the opening goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Netherlands' Victoria Pelova celebrates after scoring her side's first goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Selma Bacha, left, reacts after scoring an own goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Delphine Cascarino scores her side's third goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Delphine Cascarino celebrates after scoring her side's third goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Delphine Cascarino celebrates after scoring her side's third goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Netherlands' Chasity Grant, right, and France's Sakina Karchaoui fall to the ground during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Sandie Toletti, right, scores the opening goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Netherlands' Victoria Pelova celebrates after scoring her side's first goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Selma Bacha, left, reacts after scoring an own goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Delphine Cascarino scores her side's third goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) France's Delphine Cascarino celebrates after scoring her side's third goal during the Women's Euro 2025, group D, soccer match between the Netherlands and France at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Inspired by Delphine Cascarino's stunning six-minute spell in the second half, France surged past the Netherlands 5-2 on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals at the Women's European Championship. France's third straight win ensured it won Group D, ahead of England, which routed Wales 6-1 to finish runner-up. Advertisement The French would have been eliminated by a three-goal loss and, when the Netherlands led 2-1 at one stage, rued a bad miss by Cascarino shooting over an unguarded goal. But the San Diego Wave winger responded with a devastating burst of running and shooting to settle the game. First, Cascarino stole the ball from the Dutch at halfway and ran directly at the defense to set up Marie-Antoinette Katoto for a neat finish in the 61st. Cascarino was even better three minutes later, taking a high ball 50 meters (yards) from goal and dribbling directly at goal to unleash a rising shot from outside the penalty area. Advertisement In the 67th, Cascarino scored with a well-placed shot when the ball came to her after Katoto's shot struck the inside of both posts. Sakina Karchaoui added a penalty in stoppage time. A nervous evening became a coronation for France as the top team in the toughest group at Euro 2025. Who goes where next? France returns to Basel to face Germany on Saturday, with the winner on a path to play Spain in the semifinals. Spain plays host nation Switzerland in the quarterfinals on Friday in Bern. England gets two fewer days rest before playing Thursday against Sweden in Zurich. The winner of that game goes on to Geneva for a semifinal against Norway or Italy, who meet Wednesday in Geneva. The Netherlands, champion at Euro 2017, goes home. Wales is also eliminated. ___ AP soccer:
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
France seeking end to years of hurt and internal conflicts at Euro 2025
'I want people to stop asking me: 'Why haven't France won anything when you're one of the best teams in the world?'' Marie-Antoinette Katoto, like all her teammates, has only one dream this summer: to win the Euros. To do that, though, they have to come to terms with a history of tournament failures with the most recent one coming at the home Olympics last year, when they were knocked out by Brazil at the quarter-final stage. 'We have had opportunities and twice failed to win it at home in France. We have to have the humility to admit that,' admits Sakina Karchaoui, one of the team's vice-captains, referring also to the 2019 World Cup on home soil, when they lost to the USA in the quarter-finals. The list of failures is so long that the word 'finally' is added to any question about Les Bleues' chances. France have only managed to reach the semi-finals of a major women's competition on three occasions: the 2011 World Cup, the 2012 Olympic Games and Euro 2021. Repeated disappointments have taken a toll. 'Since we prepare for tournaments a year or two years in advance, when you arrive at the competition and you get eliminated quickly, yes, at some point it also has an impact on the mind,' says Grace Geyoro. 'It can be exhausting, especially when you see the [quality in the] team we have.' On Saturday, they start their latest mission at Euro 2025 against England in Zurich. It could not have been a tougher opening, the Lionesses having the last Euros in 2022 with a coach who also won the previous tournament, in 2019 with the Netherlands. The Dutch are also in France's group in Switzerland, together with Wales. France have always had individual quality. As far as the 2000s there have been players such as Louisa Nécib Cadamuro, Camille Abily, Marie-Laure Delie, Sandrine Soubeyrand and Laura Georges, before the arrival of Eugénie Le Sommer and Wendie Renard. All of which begs the question: Why haven't France triumphed in a major tournament. 'If we knew why France weren't winning, I think we'd have put things right by now,' says Abily, the fifth-most capped player in Les Bleues history with 183 caps between 2001 and 2017. 'I think there's a tendency in France to see football as an individual sport, thinking more about oneself before thinking about the team. That's what's been a bit lacking in the French team.' Grace Geyoro agrees: 'We've relied a lot on individuals, on the fact that one player can make the difference. Now we need to focus more on the collective, because we can only win together.' The team has often been shaken by internal conflicts, whether it be disagreements with the coach Corinne Diacre or players clashing such as Kheira Hamraoui and Aminata Diallo in 2021. Elise Bussaglia, who earned 192 caps between 2003 and 2019, says: 'The group hasn't always coped well, for various reasons. And it's true that at one point it could have had a detrimental effect on our results.' One of the areas of tension was the disconnect between the players from Lyon, who were professionals at the time, and those from Juvisy (later Paris FC) and Paris Saint-Germain, who were still semi-professional. The current Chelsea head coach, Sonia Bompastor, touches on the subject in her book Une vie de foot, which was published this year, writing: 'We weren't on the same wavelength at all, and we didn't have the same conception of what it meant to be a footballer. For me, losing a match was the end of the world; not for them.' Abily, who is Bompastor's assistant at Chelsea, insists that in her day, the team 'didn't realise' the quality it had. 'I remember that when we qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2011, we said to ourselves: 'Wow! That's great, we're here, we've qualified!' Bussaglia, who finished fourth with France at the 2011 World Cup and the following year's Olympics, adds: 'There are times when the French team should have at least won a medal, if not the title, and it didn't happen. There needs to be a bit more of a winning culture. But it's not just the federation, it's everyone: the players, the staff, the fans, everyone. Around this French team, there's still not enough desire to win.' Bompastor has also spoken about the lack of interest from the French FA in the women's team in the past. 'Nobody gave a damn about the French women's team,' she wrote in her book. 'We used to go and see Noël Le Graët, the president of the federation, to explain to him that the reason Lyon were European champions was because we'd put certain processes in place, and not because we'd gone off to summer camps with a singing coach [referring to Bruno Bini, Les Bleues coach from 2007 to 2013 who wrote songs for the players]. The only thing that mattered to him was our popularity rating and our good image.' There was a feeling by some players that the French FA was using the women's team to restore its reputation after the catastrophic 2010 World Cup when the men's team went on strike and refused to train by staying on the team bus. A lack of ambition is no longer true today, says Eric Blahic, who was assistant coach to Corinne Diacre and then Hervé Renard (2023-24) and was delighted to see the latter end the 'famous semi-final complex'. 'For years, the girls were told that they had to be in the sem-finals,' he says. 'That doesn't mean anything. Third or fourth is not the same thing. You have to say: the objective is the final.' He also rejects the idea that France have failed to go all the way because of a mental block. 'In 1982, when the French men's team played in the semi-final in Seville, when we led 3-1 and ended up being eliminated, people were already saying that it was mental problems. If that's all it was, the federation would have taken action a long time ago.' Laurent Bonadei was appointed as Renard's successor in August 2024 and since then a full-time mental performance coach, Thomas Sammut, has been part of the team 'to break this glass ceiling'. He has made other changes too, dropping three key players – Le Sommer, Renard and Kenza Dali – just before the Euros, saying that 'if it doesn't work you have to try something new'. Bonadei will also have to deal with Les Bleues' misfortune when it comes to penalties in major tournaments. Bussaglia says of the Olympics semi-final defeat to Japan in 2012: 'At the Olympics, in the semi-final, we were 2-1 down and I missed the penalty to make it 2-2. I'd never missed a penalty in my life but I missed that one.' Blahic, meanwhile, recalls the shootout loss to Australia in the 2023 World Cup, when Kenza Dali missed her spot kick against club teammate Mackenzie Arnold not once but twice as it was retaken. 'All the girls had taken lots of penalties in training, in all different forms, against three different goalkeepers,' he explains. Bonadei prefers to refer to France as 'outsiders' rather than favourites, despite having won their eight last games going into the tournament. 'Confidence is good for developing our game, but overconfidence is the trap that awaits us,' warns Bonadei. In Switzerland there is unlikely to be overconfidence as France have to battle against not only their opponents, but their past too.
Al Arabiya
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Al Arabiya
France Captain Griedge Mbock Ruled Out of Euro 2025 Opener Against England
France will be without captain Griedge Mbock for its opening match at the Women's European Championship against defending champion England. Mbock has been struggling with a right calf injury and trained apart from her teammates on Thursday, two days before France's opener in Zurich. France coach Laurent Bonadei confirmed on Friday that the experienced Paris Saint-Germain defender has been ruled out of the match. 'Unfortunately, Griedge still feels a bit of discomfort in her calf, so we won't take any risks,' he said. 'The tournament has only just started and she needs specific care. She will be with us tomorrow, but not on the field, unfortunately for her and for us.' For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. After England, France next plays tournament debutant Wales on Wednesday before its final match in Group D four days later against the Netherlands. Bonadei said he was 'quite confident that she will be able to join us quickly.' The 30-year-old Mbock has made 92 appearances for France – starting 81 of those – since her debut 12 years ago. Mbock will likely be replaced in defense by Alice Sombath or Thiniba Samoura, while PSG teammate Sakina Karchaoui could be handed the captain's armband. 'Griedge is someone who is very important in the group; she is our captain,' Karchaoui said. 'But even if she won't play the match, she will still be with us; she always has good words to tell us. But today we also have a strong group and we can count on all the players… that's also our strength that no one is irreplaceable.'
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
France captain Griedge Mbock ruled out of Euro 2025 opener against England
ZURICH (AP) — France will be without captain Griedge Mbock for its opening match at the Women's European Championship against defending champion England. Mbock has been struggling with a right calf injury and trained apart from her teammates on Thursday, two days before France's opener in Zurich. Advertisement France coach Laurent Bonadei confirmed on Friday that the experienced Paris Sain-Germain defender has been ruled out of the match. 'Unfortunately, Griedge still feels a bit of discomfort in her calf so we won't take any risks,' he said. 'The tournament has only just started and she needs specific care. 'She will be with us tomorrow but not on the field, unfortunately for her and for us.' After England, France next plays tournament debutant Wales on Wednesday before its final match in Group D four days later, against the Netherlands. Bonadei said he was 'quite confident that she will be able to join us quickly.' Advertisement The 30-year-old Mbock has made 92 appearances for France — starting 81 of those — since her debut 12 years ago. Mbock will likely be replaced in defense by Alice Sombath or Thiniba Samoura, while PSG teammate Sakina Karchaoui could be handed the captain's armband. 'Griedge is someone who is very important in the group, she is our captain,' Karchaoui said. 'But even if she won't play the match, she will still be with us, she always has good words to tell us. 'But today we also have a strong group and we can count on all the players … that's also our strength, that no one is irreplaceable.' ___ AP soccer: Daniella Matar, The Associated Press
Associated Press
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
France captain Griedge Mbock ruled out of Euro 2025 opener against England
ZURICH (AP) — France will be without captain Griedge Mbock for its opening match at the Women's European Championship against defending champion England. Mbock has been struggling with a right calf injury and trained apart from her teammates on Thursday, two days before France's opener in Zurich. France coach Laurent Bonadei confirmed on Friday that the experienced Paris Sain-Germain defender has been ruled out of the match. 'Unfortunately, Griedge still feels a bit of discomfort in her calf so we won't take any risks,' he said. 'The tournament has only just started and she needs specific care. 'She will be with us tomorrow but not on the field, unfortunately for her and for us.' After England, France next plays tournament debutant Wales on Wednesday before its final match in Group D four days later, against the Netherlands. Bonadei said he was 'quite confident that she will be able to join us quickly.' The 30-year-old Mbock has made 92 appearances for France — starting 81 of those — since her debut 12 years ago. Mbock will likely be replaced in defense by Alice Sombath or Thiniba Samoura, while PSG teammate Sakina Karchaoui could be handed the captain's armband. 'Griedge is someone who is very important in the group, she is our captain,' Karchaoui said. 'But even if she won't play the match, she will still be with us, she always has good words to tell us. 'But today we also have a strong group and we can count on all the players … that's also our strength, that no one is irreplaceable.' ___ AP soccer:
