Delphine Cascarino, who injured her right knee last May, is returning to the French team to play in the “Final Four” of the Nations League. Hervé Renard recalled the attacker for this occasion. However, the Blues will have to do without their captain Wendie Renard, who is injured in a thigh and will not be able to participate in the match against Germany on February 23 in Lyon in the semi-final.
An indestructible frame (56 caps, 14 goals), the winger with fiery legs suffered a rupture of the cruciate ligament in her right knee last May. She is making her return with the Blues even though she was unable to participate in the World Cup last summer. The 27-year-old striker was able to return to the field with Lyon at the end of January, where she made a decisive entry on Sunday against PSG (1-1). The French team will, however, have to do without its captain Wendie Renard, injured in a thigh in December and in the recovery phase.
This absence should give way to a hinge composed of Griedge Mbock and Elisa de Almeida or Maëlle Lakrar. Herve Renard also summoned Eve Perisset and the young Parisian Thiniba Samoura. At Lyon city hall to build local enthusiasm before the semi-final, the coach of the French team called up a list of 24 players, six players more than that of the Olympics this summer.
In addition to Delphine Cascarino, he called other players in form: the two Parisians Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore but also Eugenie Le Sommer, Julie Dufour and Clara Mateo, but not the young Vicki Becho nor Viviane Asseyi, from the trip in Australia. France, which finished undefeated in its group (5 wins, 1 draw), will have a good card to play against Germany, long a reference in Europe (double world champion and eight times European champion) but in crisis since a few months.
In the event of qualification for the final, the Blues will travel to Spain or the Netherlands to try to get a first title a few months before the Olympic Games in Paris. The two finalists will qualify for the Olympics. If France, already qualified as host country, is present in the final, it is the victorious nation in the third place match which will obtain the second ticket. “The goal is to reach a first continental final and that’s the only one,” Hervé Renard said on Wednesday.
As for the goalkeepers, there is “established competition” and Pauline Peyraud-Magnin is “on favorable waivers”, affirmed the coach. Constance Picaud, named number one goalkeeper after the World Cup, has little playing time with PSG. With the announcement of this list and this gathering, coach Hervé Renard can refocus attention on his mission with the Blues, while he was expected to lead Ivory Coast during the CAN after the departure of Jean -Louis Gasset.