Delphine Cascarino, the fast-paced "speedster" in the United States that threatens Germany: "If we French played in a tougher league, we'd be better."

"We have very good players, but we've never won a tournament." This is the confession of Delphine Cascarino (Saint-Priest, 1997), the player who has burst onto the scene at this European Championship to further elevate France 's status as favorite. She didn't have an easy path paired with two champions in England and the Netherlands in the group stage, but her performance was undeniable: three wins and two thrashings. Eleven goals were scored by nine different players. In the quarterfinals, tonight, she faces another tough nut to crack: the unpredictable Germany .

France coach Laurent Bonadei is hoping for the emergence of not only the eternal Marie-Antoinette Katoto , leader and role model, but also Cascarino, who came alive in the match against the Netherlands. In two years and 23 matches for France, she hadn't scored, but in three minutes against the Dutch, between the 64th and 67th minutes, with the score 2-1 down, she was able to spark the French comeback, scoring two in three minutes. And that was despite the fact that the ball hadn't passed her way in the first half. Bonadei asked her for more at halftime, and she gave it to him: an assist for Katoto to equalize and two superb goals. The first, with a 40-meter penalty area control and successive cuts to end with an unstoppable right-footed shot. The second, pushing a Katoto ball into the net that had hit both posts. That wasn't all. She had six shots and six touches in the box. Cascarino, who had come to Switzerland "with the rage of wanting to do something in this Euro" , had achieved it.

"She's a real powerhouse. You just have to turn up her fire a little," acknowledged the French coach. They've achieved that in San Diego. Cascarino, who missed the World Cup in Australia after tearing his cruciate ligament, sought out new challenges. Born to an Italian father and a mother from Martinique, she grew up in the youth academy of the all-powerful Olympique Lyonnais , but after 12 seasons, at 27, she decided to pursue a dream: to play for the San Diego Waves , the National Women's Soccer League team captained by her idol, American star Alex Morgan . "I only got to play with her for two weeks because she announced she was pregnant," Cascarino confessed a few months ago. Today, Morgan, retired, is one of the team's minority shareholders.

The physical and competitive leap

Landing in the United States has been a real leap forward. "I'm faster, I run more. In Lyon, we had six tough matches all season. Here, every week . If all the French players were in a tougher league, we'd be better," she stated shortly before landing at the French training camp where, due to her experience—she debuted in 2016 and has 80 matches under her belt—she should be a leader. However, she shies away from that role. "Technically, I could be one, but I'm quiet and don't talk much; I only like to talk on the pitch," asserts the player, who, in this tournament, feels like she's playing for two.

Delphine has a twin sister with whom she grew up in football and with whom she even wore the 'bleu' (blue) at the lower levels. Estelle is a central defender and plays for Juventus, although she tore her cruciate ligament last December and is fully recovering.

France needs this improved version of Cascarino to overcome Germany, a team undergoing a generational shift that raises doubts but is always effective. Not only has it won the European Championship eight times, but it has also been eliminated three times: in the semifinals in 1993, in the quarterfinals, already under the current format, in 2017, and lost the 2022 final to England.

It's true that the 4-1 thrashing by Sweden hurt the Germans and condemned them to a tougher match in the quarterfinals, compounded by the serious injury to their captain, Bayern midfielder Giulia Gwinn , in the first match against Poland. Leading the new Germany, who have lost key players like Alexandra Popp, is 22-year-old Jule Brand , who has scored two goals and provided two assists in the group stage, where the Germans finished second. Powerful, quick, and technical, she has just signed for Olympique Lyonnais and tonight she will have to upset France full-back Selma Bach, "but I don't talk to opponents," the German concludes.