Midfielder Grace Geyero was the chief architect for France as they opened their Women’s Euro 2022 campaign with a 5-1 beating of Italy at the New York Stadium in Rotherham. The 25-year-old scored the first hattrick of the competition inside the first half to snatch the game and three points away from Italy.
Making her 50th appearance for the French national team, Geyero opened the scoring for France in the ninth minute from close range and Marie-Antoinette Katoto made it 2-0 three minutes later after a fumble from goalkeeper Laura Giuliani, who parried it straight to Katoto for an easy tap in.
Delphine Cascarino tripled the advantage with a screamer from outside the box in the 38th minute before Geyero spread the Les Bleus name all over the tie with two more goals inside five minutes.
The PSG midfielder’s hattrick was only the fifth in Women’s Euros history after Lena Videkull (1995), Marianne Pettersen (1997), Angélique Roujas (1997), and Jodie Taylor (2017). It was also the first-ever by a French player.
While Geyero became the first player in the competition’s history to score a first-half hattrick, France became the first team to put the ball in the net five times in the first half.
Italy pulled one back in the second half with Martina Piemonte finding the net to make it 5-1, but it was too late to stage any comeback. The final result shows that the match was a great choice for online betting.
France looked clear favorites right from the starting whistle and were better than their opponents in terms of possession of the ball (59%), passing accuracy (85%), and created more clear goal-scoring opportunities. Corinne Diacre’s side could have in fact scored almost double than they did in the first half itself.