Qualified! By offering a long victory to emerge in Lithuania (83-75), the French women’s basketball team validated its ticket for Euro 2023 on Thursday. Les Bleues dominated their main competitors in Pool B, s ensuring to finish first in their group, and to benefit from a draw that is a priori more favorable for the European Championship, which will be held from June 15 to 25 in Israel and Slovenia.
Coach Jean-Aimé Toupane will lead them for the first time during a Euro, he who replaced Valérie Garnier at the head of the selection after the Tokyo Olympics. For his first competition as coach, Les Bleues reached the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, before losing to China.
Match played
Its players had to work harder than in the first leg, which they had easily won 83-56 at Villeneuve d’Ascq in November 2021. The French however started strong thanks to a 13-5 entry, before a nice reaction from the Lithuanians with a 9-0 (14-13, 8th).
Les Bleues then took control, carried by Valériane Vukosavljevic and her ten points in the first quarter then by the award-winning baskets of Sarah Michel then Marine Johannès (33-25, 16th). But the Olympic vice-champions made too many mistakes, allowing Lithuania to come back level at the break (40-40), with 14 points scored on free throws.
Gabby Williams in shape
Little in sight in the first period, Gabby Williams took things in hand after returning from the locker room: shots from mid-distance, percussion in the racket, three-point basket… The Asvel player scored 12 points during the 14-0 inflicted on the Lithuanians in five minutes, in the heart of the third quarter (56-46, 27th).
But the Blues fell into their traps at the start of the fourth quarter and again let Lithuania come back into the game, and even come back in front (63-62, 34th), in the wake of Kamile Nacickaite (20 points). Deprived of several executives like Endy Miyem, Alix Duchet or Alexia Chartereau, Iliana Rupert’s teammates were able to rely on Marine Johannès, particularly active at the end of the match (21 points, four assists), to stand out in the last minutes.
Les Bleues will therefore participate in this Euro, the final phase of which will be played in Ljubljana, where they will try to win a third continental title, after those of 2001 and 2009. To achieve this, they will have to break the curse that seems to pursue them after five failures. consecutive finals in recent editions. On the last day of this qualifying phase, they will travel to Helsinki on Sunday (2:00 p.m.) where they will challenge Finland, last in the group.