And Corinne Deacon started running.
The coach, so often frozen in front of her bench, let go.
As Grace Geyoro went to dribble past the Italian goalkeeper to score the 4-0 goal (40th), she exulted and evacuated the tension born of a long wait.
Les Bleues were thus the last to start the competition, this Sunday at New York Stadium in Rotherham.
But it was worth the wait.
By largely dominating Italy, they were full of confidence, took an almost firm option on the first place in the group and sent a signal to the many other rival selections.
But before evoking the beautiful story of Grace Geyoro, the first player in the history of the tournament to score a hat-trick in the first period, which allowed France to become the first team to score five goals before half- time, we must honor the one without whom the story could have been different.
Geyoro in the record books
What would have happened to this confrontation against the over-motivated Italians if Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, the tricolor goalkeeper, had not made an exceptional save, with her right foot, against her partner from Juventus Turin Barbara Bonansea, in the 4th minute, after Wendie Renard had badly repelled the danger?
⚽⚽⚽ @GraceGeyoro is the 1st player in Women's Euro history to score a hat-trick in the 1st half 🔥 🇫🇷
5-0🇮🇹 |
#FRAITA #ProudofBleues |
#WEURO2022 pic.twitter.com/N2z0OytI6d
– French Women’s Team (@equipedefranceF) July 10, 2022
In the process, Geyoro scored his first goal, very quickly imitated by Marie-Antoinette Katoto, his girlfriend from PSG then Cascarino.
Two other goals later, Geyoro could receive, before joining the locker room at the break, the joyful hugs of substitutes Cissoko, Sarr and Mbock.
No one has indeed forgotten their tears when leaving the lawn of Clairefontaine, June 21, victim of a lateral sprain of the left knee.
Unavailable for ten days, she had missed the two preparation matches.
The debate on the absence of Amandine Henry in the closet
At 25, the Parisian captain brought, on the occasion of this 50th tenure, her total goals in the France team to 8. “Grace is a player who has been mature for quite a long time and who could have played more for a longer time. , explained before the Euro Nadia Benmokhtar, the former player and consultant for TF 1. She has often, suddenly, been a little in the shadows but, there, she will have the opportunity to take all the place that she deserves.
It may be the Euro that will allow the general public to discover her and appreciate all her qualities because, for me, she is one of the best in this position.
»
Well supported by Toletti and Bilbaut, Geyoro, by his performance, definitively removed the debate on the absence of Amandine Henry from the tricolor group.
Corinne Deacon is right to be relieved.
If Les Bleues beat Belgium on Thursday, they will already be in the quarter.
