{"id":322625,"date":"2023-08-09T21:33:36","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T21:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=322625"},"modified":"2023-08-10T04:59:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T04:59:10","slug":"france-coach-puts-grim-hosting-curse-on-matildas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=322625","title":{"rendered":"France coach puts grim hosting curse on Matildas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spoiler alert – Herv\u00e9 Renard\u2019s French line-up knows what the atmosphere and the tension is like playing a Women\u2019s World Cup<\/a> quarter-final on home soil, and is projecting that onto Australia\u2019s Matildas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The French hosted the 2019 tournament and lost in the quarter-finals to the US team, which went on to successfully defend its title.<\/p>\n

France is coming off a comprehensive 4-0 win over Morocco that set up a quarter-final against the host team on Saturday in Brisbane, where almost 50,000 people will pack the stadium to continue a tournament that has already beaten France \u201919 for ticket sales.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Jones makes brutal World Cup call on Wallabies great<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Lockyer's fear for Broncos amid Haas pay saga<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Ex Matildas skipper fumes at public holiday 'legacy'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Renard said record crowds have no doubt been inspiring the Australian team but he warned: \u201cIt can be hugely disappointing".<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"And it was for France when they went out to the US in the quarter-finals,\u201d Renard said. "We\u2019re hoping to put Australia through exactly what France went through when they were the host country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come with great ambition. And when you come with great ambition, you have to be capable of beating the best teams. There\u2019s nothing to fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australians have what they're considering another advantage, a 1-0 win over the French in a warm-up game in Melbourne the week before the World Cup began.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned a lot from that game and now we have images of us versing them in our formation and what we can improve on,\u201d Matildas forward Cortnee Vine said on a warm and sunny Wednesday at Matildas training headquarters in Brisbane. "We\u2019ll be going back and analysing our own game against them and just picking apart what we can expose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good thing, that we know we can win, but when we play our way, we can beat anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Renard became the first coach to guide teams to wins in both the men's and women's World Cups when veterans Wendie Renard and Eug\u00e9nie Le Sommer combined to help France beat Brazil 2-1 in Brisbane in the group stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Fifth-ranked France opened with a scoreless draw against Jamaica and has since won three games, outscoring rivals 12-4, and cruised into the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The well-traveled Renard, who was hired in March to replace Corinne Diacre in charge of the French women's team, guided Saudi Arabia to a surprise upset over eventual champion Argentina at the men\u2019s World Cup in Qatar last year.<\/p>\n

If he'd had his way, there wouldn't have been a friendly against Australia so close to the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just arrived four days before, the players didn\u2019t sleep very well \u2014 that\u2019s no excuse (but) we weren\u2019t at 100 per cent,\u201d he said. "The set-up for this game is completely different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a quarter-final at the World Cup. This team knows exactly how much it can sting when your journey is cut short.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mighty<\/p>\n

France's best result remains a fourth-place finish at the Women's World Cup, and it is 1-2 in quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

Australia has lost all three quarter-finals it has played at the Women's World Cup, and was beaten in the round of 16 four years ago in a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n

But even without superstar striker Sam Kerr for the entire group stage, and for all but 10 minutes of Australia\u2019s 2-0 win over Denmark in the round of 16, the Matildas have handled the pressure except for a 3-2 upset loss to Nigeria here in the group stage.<\/p>\n

Two of their games have pulled crowds above 75,000, record numbers for women's football Down Under. Mary Fowler has played a larger role than expected and Caitlin Foord has led the attack in the absence of the injured Kerr, who is expected to play a bigger role from now.<\/p>\n

And regardless of what Renard says, Australia is framing up the win in Melbourne last month as an advantage, particularly as it's France's only loss in 11 games.<\/p>\n

Australia's veteran midfielder Tameka Yallop said France had gathered moment but still had vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve made some changes to their formation and the way they played from when they played us, and in their group as well,\u201d Yallop said. "The focus is just really the finer details and how we can play our best game against them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spoiler alert – Herv\u00e9 Renard\u2019s French line-up knows what the atmosphere and the tension is like playing a Women\u2019s World Cup quarter-final on home soil, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":322629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322634,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322625\/revisions\/322634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/322629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}