It’s the start of a new era for the Blues. And it was done with pain. With a new coach at its head in the person of Frédéric Fauthoux, the French basketball team, Olympic vice-champion this summer, painfully dominated Cyprus (59-75) Thursday evening in a qualifying match for Euro 2025 .
It must be said that the new coach of the Blues did not have all his weapons in hand, and that is the least we can say. Deprived of all his NBA and Euroleague players, the 51-year-old coach had to deal with a very rejuvenated team with Andrew Albicy as the only survivor of the Olympic adventure three months ago.
Nolan Traoré too shy
Without Victor Wembanyama, Evan Fournier or Nadir Hifi, but rather young prospects from Betclic Élite who were making their debut with the Blues like Adam Mokoka or Jean-Marc Pansa, the Blues took a long time to break away from an opponent largely behind them. their scope, already corrected by Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in these qualifications.
In the wake of Nolan Traoré, launched as a starter at the age of 18 for his first selection (10 points, 40% shooting), the tricolors looked hard, particularly at three points (3/12 at half-time). ) and even thought they stumbled when the 82nd nation in the world took the lead in the third quarter (50-49, 28th).
Frédéric Fauthoux’s men finally made the difference at the very start of the fourth quarter by pulling away eight minutes from time (50-62) thanks to a solid Yoan Makoundou (15 points, 50% shooting, 7 rebounds) , before playing until the end of the match. With this third success in three matches, the Blues already have one foot in Euro 2025.
