Delphine Cascarino’s quick double takes France top and denies Netherlands | OneFootball

Andries Jonker had maintained that “on some days miracles happen” but this was most definitely not one of them.

Admittedly there was a spell when Jonker’s Netherlands teased everyone by threatening France with the prospect of an unlikely elimination but, ultimately, Delphine Cascarino, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and the rest of Laurent Bonadei’s attacking armoury were far too powerful to be eclipsed.

As the Dutch flattered to deceive, France topped Group D having scored 11 goals in their three wins. While they prepare to face Germany here on Saturday, the 2017 European champions head back to Amsterdam with their latest head coach bidding them farewell.

Jonker will be replaced next month by the England assistant coach Arjan Veurink but at least he departed raging against the dying of the light in the course of an opening as dramatic as the thunder and lightning that prefaced torrential pre-match rain at St Jakob-Park.

It represented bad news for those fans who had crayoned the French tricolour on to their cheeks or painted their faces bonfire bright Dutch orange. Rivulets of carefully applied colour were still dripping on to chins when, as suddenly as it begun, that apocalyptic storm ended and the sky brightened in time for kick-off.

Netherlands supporters detected sunnier times ahead when the France goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin was quickly forced to dive low to deny the Arsenal midfielder Victoria Pelova from distance.

Attacking urgency represented their team’s sole hope of progression from Group D but, much as it sent excitement levels soaring inside the stadium, this exhilaratingly gung-ho approach invited counterattacks. Daphne van Domselaar saved with her legs from the ever dangerous Cascarino, before tipping Sakina Karchaoui’s follow-up shot round a post as the rain started falling again.

Given that Bonadei’s side required a draw, at most, to progress there was a sense France were playing within themselves as, with initially mixed results, they attempted to draw Dutch sting by slowing things down at every opportunity and taking their time over dead balls.

Such patience proved a virtue, temporarily at least, when the unmarked Sandie Toletti half-volleyed France ahead after meeting Katoto’s fine left-wing cross following a damaging concession of possession by the Oranje.

Not that Dutch redemption was too far away. Although Peyraud-Magnin performed wonders to keep Chasity Grant’s volley out, Pelova delighted in lashing the rebound into the top corner.

The psychological damage inflicted as England beat Jonker’s team 4-0 in Zurich was evaporating by the minute. By way of proving it, the Netherlands took the lead through Selma Bacha’s own goal after Peyraud-Magnin’s failure to deal with a cross.

Although Bacha seemed well positioned to clear off the line she was wrong-footed by Lineth Beerensteyn’s fleeting touch, leaving the ball to rebound off her and ricochet into the net as a newly tense Bonadei folded his arms a little tighter.

With the Netherlands now only a couple of unanswered goals away from reaching the quarter-finals at France’s expense, Jonker’s pre-match talk of “a miracle of Basel” suddenly did not seem quite so fanciful after all.

Particularly not when Dutch fans were treated to the sight of their principal goal threat, Vivianne Miedema, warming up early in the second half, unnerving Les Bleues fans, some of whom had travelled from the outlying areas of greater Basel that geographically belong to France.

Or at least it did until Katoto reminded everyone that Bonadei possesses a star striker of his own. When a momentary loss of Dutch focus handed possession to Cascarino her game-changing lofted through ball left Katoto’s left foot to do the rest.

Not to be upstaged, Cascarino swiftly registered an even more eye-catching goal from the edge of the area after dodging a couple of Dutch defenders before cutting inside and unleashing a dipping and unerring right-foot shot.

Cascarino, suitably inspired, then scored again, polishing off the rebound after Katoto’s shot hit both posts.

As serial underachievers at a series of major tournaments, France are horribly prone to hitting the metaphorical woodwork. Yet as Karchaoui scored their fifth goal, an immaculate left-foot penalty awarded after Kerstin Casparij’s foul on Melween N’Dongala, the sense grew that this time it might just be different.

Header image: [Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images]