“The result is horrible”in the very words of the coach of the France Espoirs team, Thierry Henry, who did not take any tweezers to describe the defeat of his young players against South Korea (3-0), Monday November 20, during a friendly match in Le Havre.
After having scored four victories since his arrival in August, including a festival of goals against Cyprus (9-0), Thierry Henry is now experiencing defeat. The team had already lost on Friday against Austria (2-0), during the fourth day of qualifying for Euro 2025. With this defeat, the Bleuets failed to bounce back to end 2023 on a positive note. .
Lucid at the channel’s microphone The TeamThierry Henry came back at the end of the match, hotly, on this new disappointment: “There’s something in football called being realistic, when you create so many chances and you don’t [la balle] basically, you give the opposing team the opportunity to punish you. »
“We can’t afford to concede goals like that”
However, the French dominated the match. A cross strike from Mathys Tel (at 21e minute), a header from Lesley Ugochukwu (23e), a curled one from Bradley Barcola (27e) or a powerful shot from Monegasque Maghnes Akliouche (43e) almost hit the mark.
Maghnes Akliouche, undoubtedly the best Frenchman of the match, then thought he would deliver a decisive pass shortly before the break, but Arnaud Kalimuendo’s half-volley hit the crossbar. The Bleuets continued to push in the second period, Isaak Touré’s powerful header from a corner this time finding the Korean goalkeeper (64e).
As Thierry Henry said, dominating is not winning and South Korea opened the scoring with a superb free kick by Sang-bin Jeong (70e). Then, taking advantage of two disagreements in the French defense and a game of billiards, the South Koreans increased the score (79e90e + 4).
“We can’t afford to concede goals like that. The second and third are quite comical”regretted Thierry Henry, before adding: “Once again, we gave away goals. Even if the free kick is still beautiful, the other two goals were avoidable. »
A match to forget for goalkeeper Guillaume Restes, who nevertheless had the captain’s armband. Coming into play, Lensois Elye Wahi failed to score despite two good chances. “Now we will have to recover, get through the year, and we will be able to start with the under-23 group [ans] » who will participate in the Paris Olympic Games, concluded Thierry Henry.