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Injury-free France captain Mbock 'impatient' for Euro 2025 debut in quarterfinal

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — France captain Griedge Mbock is “impatient” to get going as she prepares to make her first appearance at the Women’s European Championship.

Les Bleues have been boosted by the return of Mbock for Saturday’s quarterfinal against Germany after the experienced defender missed the whole of the group stage due to a calf injury.

Although it’s not as if they fared too badly without her. France topped one of the toughest groups in the tournament with three wins, including over defending champion England.

“I feel really good, actually I’m really impatient because I was away from the pitch for quite a long time,” Mbock said on Friday. “But today I feel good and I’m going to be back to the pitch. I took all the energy that the team gave me, that helped me to hold on for this time of absence.

“I’m impatient to start this competition on the pitch and, simply, to be able to contribute.”

The winner will face world champion Spain or Switzerland in the semifinals.

The 30-year-old Mbock has 92 appearances for France — starting 81 of them — since her debut 12 years ago.

But at Euro 2025 she has been restricted to a place on the substitutes bench and only then so she could cheer on the team from the sidelines.

“It’s very good news,” France coach Laurent Bonadei said. “She suffered a bit in silence for all this time, far away from the pitch.

“However, she was present with her teammates in order to give very good advice, that is why I included her on the bench, because she’s captain, she’s very precious in the locker room also and she’ll be ready to start the game tomorrow.”

France is on an 11-match winning streak but the quarterfinals have always been somewhat of a stumbling block for Les Bleues.

France has only twice made it into the semifinals of a World Cup or Euros: The 2011 World Cup where it lost to the United States, and at Euro 2022 where it fell to Germany.

Les Bleues have been eliminated in the quarterfinals in six of the past eight World Cups or Euros.

“I like talking about overcoming barriers and I think that since October this team has been overcoming barriers at each step,” Bonadei said. “We had the friendly games, we had the Nations League and now our group here, which was labelled the group of death and this team advanced and managed to overcome barriers.

“So I have a lot of confidence in this team to overcome this next barrier.”

As well as being boosted at the back by Mbock, France knows it can rely on its ruthless attack.

France bagged 11 goals in its three group stage matches — scored by nine different players.

Moreover, Germany will be weakened in defense. Captain Giulia Gwinn was ruled out of the tournament after injuring her knee in her team's opening win and her replacement, Carlotta Wamser, is suspended for the quarterfinal after being sent off in Germany's 4-1 thrashing by Sweden.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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