“The result is horrible”: France Espoirs team coach Thierry Henry did not hold back when describing the defeat of his young players against South Korea 3-0 on Monday in Le Havre in a friendly match.
“We learn!”: after having had four victories since his arrival in August, including a festival against Cyprus (9-0), Thierry Henry is now experiencing defeat.
After the failure on Friday in Austria 2-0 during the fourth day of qualifying for Euro-2025, the Bleuets had to bounce back to leave 2023 on a positive note. It missed.
Lucid at the microphone of the L’Equipe channel, failing to have found the key at the Océane stadium in Le Havre, Henry directly explained this new disillusionment: “There is something in football called being realistic, when you If you create so many chances and you don’t put them away, you give the opposing team the opportunity to punish you.”
Because it was the French who dominated. A cross shot from Mathys Tel (21st), a header from Lesley Ugochukwu (23rd), a curl from Bradley Barcola (27th) or a powerful shot from Monegasque Maghnes Akliouche (43rd) almost hit the mark.
Akliouche, undoubtedly the best Frenchman of the match, then thought he would deliver a decisive pass shortly before the break, but Arnaud Kalimuendo’s half-volley hit the crossbar.
The Bleuets continued to push in the second period, Isaak Touré’s powerful header from a corner this time finding the Korean goalkeeper (64th).
But as Henry said, dominating is not winning and South Korea opened the scoring with a superb free kick by Sang-bin Jeong (70th). Then, taking advantage of two disagreements in the French defense and a game of billiards, the South Koreans increased the score (79th, 90th 4).
“We can’t afford to concede goals like that. The second and third are quite comical,” Henry regretted. “Once again we gave away goals, even if the free kick was still good, the other two goals were avoidable.”
A match to forget for goalkeeper Guillaume Restes, who nevertheless had the captain’s armband.
Coming into play, Lensois Elye Wahi failed to score despite two good chances.
“Now we will have to recover, get through the year, and we will be able to start with the under-23 group” which will participate in the Paris Olympic Games, Henry concluded.