Women’s EURO 2013: France v Denmark Review

The last quarter final involved one of the favourites for the tournament and the team that scraped through thanks to winning the draw of the lots.

France went into this game as huge favourites having been the only team in the competition to have won every group game, in addition they won every game in their qualifying group. France have looked dominate throughout the tournament especially in the game against England where they made six changes and still looked as if they could go all the way.

Denmark were lucky to get through to the last eight and were definitely the underdogs going into the fixture. The Danes got a point against the hosts following two penalty saves from Petersen as well as a point against Finland. Every way you looked at this game, you could only see a comfortable French win.

France started positively and nearly got an early goal when Necib rolled the ball into Bussaglia who tried her luck from 25 yards, and her effort swerved wide. However, after that shot Denmark grew into the game and contained France’s firepower, as well as posing a threat themselves.

Their first real opportunity came in the first ten minutes when a great team move found Rasmussen who was controversially ruled offside, but she couldn’t find the back of the net. I think it was just a case of one pass too many and that it was a tough decision for the lines woman to call. Denmark were showing that they were the team that deserved to be in the last eight and pressured the defence.

Right from the first whistle it was a great game from the neutral point of view with both sides attacking, it was only a matter of time until a goal came, but the key question was who would get the all important goal.

Denmark had another similar chance 25 minutes in when it was yet another great bit of team play. The move ended with a ball in from Gajhede was just a bit too far for Nielsen, but she was wrongly ruled offside. The Danes got the first goal of the game a couple of minutes later when Pedersen put a ball over the top which Rasmussen latched onto, and she finished calmly by firing it into the far corner to give Denmark a shock lead. It was deserved.

France nearly got an instant equaliser through Thiney’s low shot but Petersen mad a save to give the French a corner. From then on there was a short period of France pressure, but it didn’t result in a goal. Shortly after the Danish keeper was tested again when Le Sommer let fly to make Petersen make another good save.

France were attacking and creating chances well, but they just couldn’t find the end product. Nothing seemed to work. They started to get frustrated and were starting to make some rash challenges. The most blatant of the challenges came when Thiney came sliding in and caught the shin of Brogaard. I think that Thiney was lucky not to be sent off for that challenge, if she was shown red it could have changed the game.

Going into the break, Denmark were leading by one goal and best of all it was a deserved lead. The Danes would have also gained confidence from the performance of their keeper. It was an overall good first half performance, every single player gave 100%.

The French made a half time sub which saw the skipper Soubeyrand make way for the fast paced winger Thomis. Thomis was brought on to add the extra pace to see if she could get behind the defence and cause more problems.

At the start of the second half, France increased the tempo of their play and were pushing for the goal to take them back on level terms. However, this left gaps in their defence which Denmark took advantage off and showed they are dangerous on the counter.

France had plenty of shots at goal in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd period but they couldn’t get it past Petersen who looked as if she was determined to keep a clean sheet. Les Bleus were trying to pick apart the defence and attempted to find holes but Denmark were solid. It was an end to end game, and as the second half wore on the Danes were getting better and better.

Whenever Le Sommer and co found their way past the defence they had the wall of Petersen to face, she looked unstoppable. Abily, Bussaglia, Thomis, Le Sommer, Necib, all of them had plenty of shots but no matter what they threw at Denmark they just absorbed the pressure.

Mid way through the second half, France tried a new tactic by taking shots from distance to see if they could get a wonder goal to give them the boost to push them to the semis.

With 20 minutes to go on the clock, France were given a penalty after a push from Roddik on Abily. Necib stepped up to take the spot kick and shot into the top corner which Petersen got two hands to, but despite her best efforts she failed to keep it out. I thought that it was a soft penalty and that Denmark were unlucky to concede the penalty.

Following the leveller for France, the quality of the football dropped slightly but not for long because Les Bleus were searching for the winner. One of their best chances was when Le Sommer created space for herself but she shot just wide of the mark at the near post.

Denmark continued to hit their opponents on the break but they failed to cause any major problems. France looked like the team that was most likely to score. The Danes looked as if they were trying to keep the scores level to play an extra half an hour.

There was a last gasp chance for the French to avoid taking it to extra time with a shot from Thiney which had plenty of power but no accuracy so it resulted in a shot that sailed over the bar.

In extra time, it was clear that both teams were tiring. It was a case of either who would tire first or who wanted the place in the last four more. The game wasn’t as fast paced but it was still entertaining if you are a neutral. There were a lot more fouls committed in extra time because the players were getting frustrated and tired.

The only real chance of the first chunk of extra time came from Thiney who whipped a shot from outside the box, but it found the wrong side of the post. France were the team on top and the best Denmark could hope for was a victory in the shoot out.

There was an early chance for France in the second chunk of extra time through a free kick following a foul committed by Jensen on Abily. Abily took the set piece which struck the bar which caused Danish fans’ hearts go straight to their mouth.

Late on in extra time, the French felt they should have had a penalty for a handball after a couple of shots around the area. However, Le Sommer was ruled offside.

In the end it came to a penalty shoot out. France had the chances to avoid the dreaded shoot out but they didn’t take them.

The first penalty was taken calmly by Roddik who slotted it into the bottom corner. The second penalty was saved from Petersen from Necib who scored earlier on in the game.

This is how the other penalties turned out:

Rhydahl- Goal
Thiney- Goal
Nedim- Goal
Le Sommer- Goal
Nielsen- Saved
Delannnoy- Missed
Arnth- Goal

The final result was that Denmark were victorious on penalties by four goals to two. The French were the better team over the two hours of play, but they failed to take their chances so it was all their own fault. I was glad that Denmark got through to the next round because they gave all they possibly could and they were the underdog. They are yet to win a game in normal time because they only got two points out of a possible nine in the group stage.

I just think that because their manager is a psychologist, could that have gave them the edge over France in the shoot out.

My woman of the match was Denmark keeper Petersen because whenever she was called upon to make a save she didn’t let her team down. Another good player for Denmark was their number 10 Harder who was their play maker. She was involved in every Danish move and I felt that she deserved a goal. I like to watch the play makers be so influential in a team because whenever I play football, I play as a central midfielder.

France did have a couple of penalty shouts which could have changed the outcome, but they did rely on getting the penalty to go to extra time. Their equaliser did change the game in their favour but they failed to score whilst they were on top.