Grace Geyoro put on an incredible show in her 50th cap for France. The French are cementing their status as favorites at the European Football Championship. Italy is completely off the roll and goes down dramatically.
Co-favorite France mastered the first hurdle at the European Football Championship in England. National coach Corinne Diacre’s team outclassed Italy 5-1 (5-0) at the start on Sunday and underlined their title ambitions. France, who have been eliminated in the quarter-finals of the last three European Championship tournaments, are now at the top of Group D.
Grace Geyoro (9th minute/40th/45th) from Paris Saint-Germain with a three-pack, her club colleague Marie-Antoinette Katoto (12th) and Delphine Cascarino (38th) from Champions League winner Olympique Lyon already shot France unassailable lead in the first half. In the second round, Martina Piemonte (76th) scored the consolation goal for Italy.
France were lucky shortly after kick-off not to fall directly behind. Barbara Bonansea missed her free-standing chance from close range in the fourth minute. That was obviously the wake-up call for the French, and the team really turned up the heat afterwards. At first, Katoto missed from offside (7′), before Geyoro used a mistake in the Italian defense around captain Sara Gama for her first goal in her 50th international match. After the 2:0 only France played and even missed several chances.
The game was already decided at half-time, the French took it a little easier, stopped hitting the ball with final determination and saved themselves for the upcoming games. The fact that Italy ended the game with eleven men was also due to a correction by VAR: Gama had tackled Geyoro rustically (66th) and was red by referee Rebecca Welch. After viewing the video images, she switched to yellow – lucky for Italy.
A strong performance by France makes the claims of the Grande Nation clear. Finally a title is needed. Because despite constantly being one of the favorites, that has never happened. All previous World Cup and European Championship participations ended in the quarter-finals.
