Point more prized by England than by France
Monday, August 19, 2013
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England's "mature and resilient" performance against France left coach Mo Marley highly satisfied while opposite number Gilles Eyquem saw the positives despite the stalemate.
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Mo Marley, England coach
It was a very resilient performance, a very mature performance, with the players holding on under a lot of pressure as we didn't have a lot of the ball. We made it quite difficult for France to break us down. We anticipated that they were going to be very tough to beat, so we set ourselves up to be hard to break down and then maybe use a bit of quality going forward. That's what we tried to do against a great team and we're happy it went to plan. It's a big point.
The goalkeeper made her debut, the central midfielder and one of the forwards too – we had a debutant in each unit and that's a big ask against a team of France's quality. But the girls handled it really well. They acquitted themselves as best they could. The big compliment was that the French got a bit frustrated towards the end and that gave us the confidence to hold on. We never really had a lot of the ball but that takes a lot of character and resilience to keep going. Credit to the players for that.
We had a plan and we wanted to bring a bit of experience with the substitutes – the subs came on, brought their own individual quality to the team and made us that little bit stronger in the second half.
Gilles Eyquem, France coach
I think we can be a bit disappointed by the result, even though England defended really well. When you look at the opportunities we had, the quality of our game and our possession stats, yes we are a bit disappointed. But we have not lost and we will now focus on Denmark. I would hope for a better result on Thursday. We want to qualify so we will have to produce results against Denmark and Wales.
At half-time I decided to introduce a bit more speed, a bit more technical quality as well, a bit more presence. We had interesting situations around the England goal, so I believe those substitutions were positive. Overall, I think the players looked fit and on their game, they put in a big effort. Maybe there was a drop in fitness towards the end of the match but it was hard because the English team were very solid and physically strong. Maybe our players are not that physical in comparison.
