Six months and eight days after the last outing, the Blues have successfully returned to school in the strange atmosphere of Subotica behind closed doors, with a renewed team, effective if not flamboyant against Serbia (2-0) in qualifying for the Euro.
In the silence of the Gradski stadion, a small stadium 2 hours drive north of Belgrade, the French team upheld the status of ultra-favorites that Eugenie Le Sommer, evening captain, had assumed before the meeting: liveliness, technique and power were on the side of the visitors who provided the essentials in the first quarter of an hour.
However, it was decidedly not a normal recovery for the Blue, forced by the Covid-19 pandemic to take an endless break since March 10 against the Netherlands (3-3) at the end of the Tournoi de France, at Valenciennes and already behind closed doors.
In the meantime, the round ball started to spin again but the health threat did not dissipate.
Faced with the virus, which caught up with assistant coach Eric Blahic just before the rally, the French women barricaded themselves in their comfortable hotel in Subotica.
They will therefore not have taken advantage of the charms of this city of 100,000 inhabitants located at the gates of Hungary.
But they will surely remember the decayed Gradski stadion, hidden behind trees and a fun fair with blue-white-red lights, its exposed concrete stands surrounding an athletics track in front of which the ZFK Spartak Subotica usually officiates.
At kickoff, deprived of five executives on injury, in addition to goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi on "break" with the France team, coach Corinne Deacon had installed an ultra offensive team and an experimental defense, with Elisa de Almeida (Montpellier) and Estelle Cascarino (Bordeaux) in an unprecedented central hinge in front of Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, the former goalkeeper N.2.
Cascarino, binoculars in sight
The Atlético Madrid player had only two balls to capture, in two stages (23rd) and on a free kick (72nd), in a one-way match where Estelle Cascarino was reassuring in defense (22nd, 40th, 51st) while his twin Delphine shone in attack on her right wing.
The young Lyon striker shot (14th, 44th), provoked a lot and especially often centered as on the 2-0 goal scored by Amel Majri (15th), her OL teammate who had scored a hat-trick in the first leg ( 6-0) in November 2019.
Deacon also probably appreciated the good understanding between Paris strikers SG Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani, who combined in the area (30th, 35th) and were decisive on the opening of the score.
Diani countered the Serbian defense and centered on the left for his sidekick who, with a header, forced the keeper to a reflex stop, canceled by the unfortunate Andjela Frajtovic who propelled the ball into his own goal (6th).
With this advantage quickly acquired, and held at the end of a second period without brilliance, Deacon allowed himself to offer a first selection to the promising Lyon striker Melvine Malard who, far from being intimidated, almost scored as a great (76th, 86th) after entering on the hour mark.
The Bleues did not succeed everything, however, far from it, as evidenced by the awkwardness of captain Le Sommer, not always fair in her choices and ball catches, and always blocked with a goal of the record held by Marinette Pichon (81 goals).
After this third victory in three qualifying matches for the Euro, the Blue are nevertheless able to breathe before joining North Macedonia on Sunday, two days before facing in Sköpje the penultimate European nation in the Fifa rankings.
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