“What else needs to be done? “: Amandine Henry regrets the low attendance at the France-Germany match in Lyon

The French women’s team is on the verge of its first continental title. Like Kylian Mbappe and others in 2021, Amandine Henry and the Blues are targeting a Nations League spot at the end of February, which begins with the semi-final against Germany this Friday night at the Groupama stadium outside Lyon. A very good poster, a rematch of the Euro 2022 semi-final lost to France, which currently attracts only about 25,000 spectators, while the stadium has a capacity of almost 60,000 seats (FFF has opened about 30,000 seats for sale).

Answering this question during a lengthy interview to be published in our columns on Friday, Amandine Henry admits her confusion. “There’s still a lot to work on,” the former OL player breathes. It’s hopeless. What else needs to be done? We players give it our all. A beautiful poster, a beautiful stadium, a beautiful city… We don’t know what to do. We talk about this, we ask ourselves the question: what can we do to fill the stadiums? When we see other countries, it works. Why doesn’t this work for us? We really don’t understand. »

“There are still places, take them”

The 34-year-old midfielder, who has 98 caps, then gives examples of Spain, England or the United States, which she is familiar with from playing in Portland (2016-2017) and now in Los Angeles. When the list of 24 players called up for the match was announced on Wednesday, February 14, coach Hervé Renard made the same call: “I hope the stadium will be as full as possible. This is the message: there are still places available, so take them. » Around 3,000 additional tickets have since been sold, bringing the total to around 25,000.

“We were very close to winning this first trophy with France,” recalls Amandine Henry. We dreamed of having interesting matches more often, so this is an opportunity. This will not stop us from giving our all. » Seats are still on sale, ranging from 10 to 50 euros each (7 to 35 euros for FFF licensees). If they win, Les Bleues will play the final in Seville (Spain) or Heerenveen (Netherlands). Last December in Rennes they beat Austria 3-0 at the Roajon Park stadium in Rennes in front of more than 26,000 people, a record for France in France since the 2019 World Cup.