he French women’s team has just won a historic victory by beating Belgium (81-75) this Friday, qualifying at the same time for the final of the Paris Olympic Games.

The Belgian players and their coach Rachid Meziane, however, have great regrets after this disappointment.

After seeing their friends in the men’s category qualify for the final of the Olympic Games, the French women’s team was determined to imitate them.

And to do that, they had to beat the Belgians, the reigning European champions.

While they had been eliminated by these same basketball players in the semi-finals during their last competition, the Bleues took their revenge in a spectacular match.

The Belgians were trailing by 6 points in the last minute of the fourth quarter.

After a contentious foul by Marine Fauthoux, which gave rise to 3 free throws, and especially a 3-pointer by Emma Meesseman, they nevertheless snatched overtime.

But in the end, the French had the last word and won (81-75), forcing the opposing coach Rachid Meziane to a big shouting match after the match.

Rachid Meziane dismantles the playing style of the Bleues
There is a lot of disappointment and frustration.

But there is no reason to be sad.

We once again fought a real battle against this French team, which was able to count on 11 players in the rotations, where it was more complicated for us.

We lost 21 balls, we gave them 19 offensive rebounds.

This gave them too many second chances and too many points.

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If we had had more control, discipline and rigor in at least one of these statistics, the match would have been different.

Overall, we dominated 15 minutes of the first half, then we let this French team express itself with its euphoria, its energy and its aggressiveness.

I am sorry to say this but we played basketball, where sometimes it looked more like a fight on the other side.

I am proud to have played basketball for 45 minutes.

We have to get our heads back in the right place because we keep this ambition to go get a medal.

We will have to digest and try to go to sleep already with the desire to go get this bronze medal.

We are capable of it. We proved that we were capable of reversing many situations.

Author of 19 points on 7/14 shooting, 14 rebounds and 6 assists, the Belgian star Emma Meesseman gave everything during this match, but it was not enough.

Carried by Gabby Williams’ 18 points at 5/13 shooting, 3 rebounds and 4 assists and Valériane Ayayi’s 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, the Tricolores have indeed shown great solidarity despite a few moments of wandering.

Belgium has been excellent throughout the tournament.

Still a little bitter, Rachid Meziane had some very harsh words after this failure against the Bleues.

But like the boys, the latter will fight well for gold against Team USA this Sunday.