French women's football team: repeated failures that can be explained

Following the French women's national football team feels like being trapped in a time loop. Before every major competition, hope is reborn. After every major competition, the outcome is the same. Generations pass, but in the end, Les Bleues always fail in the quarterfinals.

In Switzerland, Laurent Bonadei's players, who have been in charge since August 2024, nevertheless muddied the waters with a near-perfect first round. First in the "group of death" ahead of England and the Netherlands – the last two winning nations of the Euro – they had achieved a flawless performance, which suggested, this time, a positive outcome.

Alas, the French team managed to avoid qualifying for the Euro 2025 semi-finals, despite the odds stacked against them on Saturday, July 19 in Basel. With a man advantage for nearly two hours against Germany, after Kathrin Hendrich received a red card for an improbable hair-pulling attempt on Griedge Mbock, the French team opened the scoring from a penalty kick, but were unable to score the extra goal that would have put them through. Worse still, the French team let their opponents equalize, before finally conceding in the penalty shootout.

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