Tournament feature
Allez Les Bleues (France EURO 2022 preview)
She Kicks, issue 74, July 2022 p.61
France’s EURO 2022 preview opens on the phrase that arrives with every French tournament: maybe this time. Rarely short on talent, Les Bleues had still never gone beyond a European Championship quarter-final, with fourth place at the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics their best returns anywhere. This is their second tournament under Corinne Diacre, the former captain who took charge in 2017, and the preview picks out a squad with a strong English accent – West Ham’s Hawa Cissoko, Everton’s Kenza Dali and a new Chelsea signing among them – alongside the Lyon core that had just lost a Champions League final in Turin. Wendie Renard, one of the five players illustrated on this issue’s cover, anchors the defence.