France took the opportunity to rest and rotate against Wales
Laurent Bonadei is not afraid of change. That much was clear when the France manager omitted legendary captain Wendie Renard, the nation's top goalscorer and most-capped player Eugenie Le Sommer and San Diego Wave's Kenza Dali from this European Championship.
He confronted media and fans' shock with a nonplussed shrug, quoting Albert Einstein's theory of inertia that doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome is lunacy.
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Whether Einstein's theory works in the inverse — doing a different thing to beget the same outcome — is another matter altogether, one Bonadei seemed to attempt to answer against Wales on Wednesday as he announced seven changes to a starting XI that had comprehensively dismantled England 2-1 in their Euro opener three days earlier.
As Wales forward Jess Fishlock's goal in the 13th minute cancelled out France forward Clara Mateo's opener, Bonadei's theory looked to have holes, most notably in the space between the altered forward line and mostly altered back-line.
France ultimately emerged unscathed in St. Gallen, making the 15-kilometre trek back to Heiden with a 4-1 victory and a likely last-16 berth in tow. But this match was certainly a testament to the transition state France remain in, the sense of potential but pockets of concern that lurk beneath a pristine surface.
Bonadei warned changes would be made in his pre-match press conference. But as team news emerged, the bowels of St. Gallen's Kybunpark transformed into a frantic, disorientating race of fact-checking. Seven changes? Are you sure?
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In one way, this felt like a bold but obvious flex. Bringing on last season's Première Ligue (the French top-flight) top-scorer in Kadidiatou Diani is a kind of depth few teams in this tournament can muster. Throw in an entirely rotated front three (Diani, Melvine Malard, Mateo), new centre-back (Alice Samoura), new right-back (Melween N'Dongola) and two new midfielders (Sandie Toletti and Amel Majri) and it borders on some kind of hoarding complex, the front door of a French chateau trembling with the sheer weight of this armada.
The opening exchanges seemed to suggest precisely this. Diani slivering between lines, Mateo evaporated and reappeared like some Marvel character. It was she who slipped in down the right and won France's corner in the seventh minute, only to appear in space at the back post moments later, taking a touch and volleying France's first goal with sublime cool.
But when Wales offered riposte, France looked vulnerable. The absence of midfielder Sakina Karchaoui, who was an all-consuming force against England in the centre of the park, felt conspicuous here. Equally, without wingers Sandy Baltimore and Delphine Cascarino, France didn't spread Wales as wide as they did England. Cascarino was especially a miss, her ability to run at and stretch back lines unrivalled in this France squad.
In the opening 45 minutes, France had an expected goals (xG) of 1.22, including Mateo's opener and Diani's penalty, while mustering only one save from Wales goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel. Not until two moments of naivety on either side of half-time from Wales — Ceri Holland's poorly-timed lunge on Mateo in the box in the 45th minute and Middleton-Patel's poorly-executed attempt to play out from the back — did France look more like the top-10 side tipped to go deep in this tournament.
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Asked about his decisions to chop and change post-match, Bonadei maintained his decision was one of opportunity against the tournament's lowest-ranked side, with key players against England offered vital minutes of rest while players on the fringes were able to stretch their legs and find their tournament stride.
'I've got 23 players,' Bonadei said. 'Who I play depends on the shape and the form of the opposition and the players. I wanted to give some players a break. I wanted to give others like Toletti and Diani time to play for long periods.'
Bonadei also emphasised the importance of rotation for younger players, a theme of his tenure. Part of his reasoning for his decision to leave out such experienced internationals from his Euros squad was to offer more players major tournament experience. Toletti, for example, played her first World Cup in 2023 at the age of 28.
The majority of France's players are in their peak years (24-29) and there is only one player in each position aged 30 or above. But Bonadei has opted for some very youthful defenders, including 21-year-old centre-backs Alice Sombath and Thiniba Samoura and 20-year-old Melween N'Dongola, who all started against Wales.
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According to Bonadei, Sombath and Samoura decided before the match to swap sides in the back four.
'At the beginning they thought they needed to balance differently,' Bonadei said. 'We [coaches] are here to support them. We give instructions, they follow tightly but sometimes it's important to give them autonomy. When I saw they wanted to change, I thought okay, I'll let them do it. Because for their age they are courageous, they are determined, it shows their capacity to analyse their own game, to understand their strengths and weaknesses.'
The courage was not without complications. Bonadei instructed midfielder Majri, involved in three goals, to be aggressive in attack to the point of forming a front four at times. Both full-backs were also instructed to push high up the pitch. The result was exploitable pockets of space in front of the backline. In the moments when Wales countered with balls over the top, France's centre-backs were faced with more responsibilities.
'It was a problem of displacement,' Bonadei said. 'We were imbalanced and Wales had ambition to get forward. So at times, our defence was in a crisis but that's when we see a young player can progress.'
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For France, the education should be fruitful. The cliche goes that tournaments are not won by teams of 11 but by squads of 23, and Bonadei is savvy enough to make note of that as soon as possible. Despite the rotation, France have scored six goals in their two opening games, all from different goalscorers.
This remains a team in transition but Laurent Bonadei is ensuring that transition is working.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Wales, France, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros
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Nobody tells Steve (Parish) what to do, he's as stubborn as anybody.' Palace, no doubt, will say the only player to be transferred between them and Lyon was centre-back Jake O'Brien in 2023: beyond some young players going on loan to Molenbeek (including O'Brien, earlier in his career), they had no other transactions with an Eagle Football Group club, despite Textor's frequent suggestions. Advertisement But Dr Gregory Ioannidis, an experienced campaigner at CAS and an associate professor at Sheffield Hallam University, is not sure this will be enough to sway the panel. He believes Palace will try to argue that a 'more flexible and purposeful interpretation of the regulations' should be applied, with the club's lawyers asking the panel to think about what UEFA is trying to achieve with its MCO rules, fair competition, and whether the English side pose any threat to that legitimate aim. 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As MCO groups have proliferated across Europe, UEFA has given owners two options: reduce your stake in one of the clubs that want to compete in the same competition to less than 30 per cent, step down as a director and halt whatever player-trading strategy you are pursuing with the two teams, or put one of into a blind trust, so you have no influence over day-to-day operations. Crucially, UEFA moved the deadline for doing one or the other of these workarounds from early June to March 1. DAC, Drogheda and Palace all missed this memo. However, in both the DAC and Drogheda cases, the CAS panels backed UEFA. Advertisement 'What is of immense importance here is the panels' findings that the current regulations do not require evidence of actual influence, but rather only the possibility of such influence,' says Ioannidis. 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And there is some encouragement here, in that the concepts of fairness, integrity and sporting justice are all enshrined in Swiss law. But there are risks attached to this approach, too. 'Swiss law does protect such principles and both CAS and the Swiss Federal Tribunal (where any appeals over a CAS verdict are heard but rarely upheld) have ruled accordingly,' says Ioannidis. 'However, I wouldn't run this argument, because the panel may take the view that it is precisely for these principles that UEFA's decision may be upheld, as the other clubs in the competition acted promptly and ensured they followed the rules and deadlines.' Advertisement That said, the Drogheda case shows that one of the panel disagreed with his colleagues. The written judgment has not been published, so we do not know why they disagreed but it is possible the Irish club's plea for a more common-sense-based assessment of the rules was persuasive. Palace may think that if they can do the same, they are halfway there. 'Not everything is negative for Palace,' says Ioannidis. 'I would argue that the intention of the regulator is to ensure fair competition. As such, the fact that Palace may have realised their mistake and acted in compliance with the rules, albeit late, shows a genuine and honest approach to the legitimate aim pursued by UEFA. 'In this instance, it would be fair, just and reasonable for UEFA to allow Palace to be admitted to the Europa League.' Another possible line of attack for Palace is the apparent inconsistencies in the application of UEFA's rules — and this is where the decision to make Forest a party in this appeal is intriguing. 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But an argument that effectively depends on the panel accepting that it is OK for a club to be confused about the regulations is unlikely to pan out. 'The rules and deadlines have always been there, and Palace had to act promptly, irrespective of what other clubs did,' says Ioannidis. 'The panel might say that a professional club, with an army of expert lawyers, ought to be more diligent and proactive. If confused, they could have asked UEFA for clarification.' And with that sensible advice, we should probably wrap this up and wait for CAS to make sense of it all. Hopefully.
