“The result is horrible,” in the words of the France-Espoirs team coach Thierry Henry, who did not take any tweezers to describe the defeat of his young players against South Korea 3-0, Monday November 20, during a friendly match in Le Havre.
After having scored four victories since his arrival in August including a festival against Cyprus (9-0), Thierry Henry is now experiencing defeat. The team had already lost on Friday against Austria 2-0, during the fourth day of qualifying for Euro-2025. With this defeat, the Bleuets fail to bounce back to end 2023 on a positive note.
Lucid at the channel’s microphone The TeamThierry Henry came back at the end of the match, hotly, on this new disappointment: “There’s something in football called being realistic, when you create so many chances and you don’t [la balle] basically, you give the opposing team the opportunity to punish you. »
“We can’t afford to concede goals like that”
Because it was the French who dominated the match. 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 p 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 Thierry 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”regretted Thierry Henry, before adding: “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 [ans] » who will participate in the Paris Olympic Games, concluded Thierry Henry.
The World with AFP