France Sets Their Date with Australia
The Matildas booked their ticket through to the World Cup quarterfinals with their 2-0 victory on Monday night over Denmark. At the time, they weren’t aware of who their opponent would be as France and Morocco were set to kick off a day later.
Well, we now know. France thumped Morocco 4-0 to set up a date with the co-host Aussies in the quarterfinals this Saturday. The two teams have never met at a World Cup, but the game will be a rematch of the final World Cup tune up game the two squads played against one another in which the Matildas won 1-0.
That match was played in front of 50,000 loud and proud Matilda fans in Melbourne and Saturday’s quarterfinal in Brisbane will feature the same Australian energy. Though the hostile crowd is something the French feel they are prepared to overcome:
"They will be at home, but we are used to having fans against us in this tournament. The atmosphere will be incredible, and it will be down to us to deal well with the pressure. We have to play with our qualities and if we do, we will be hard to beat." French midfielder Grace Geyoro told ESPN.
Matildas Vs. France Match Outlook
In their pre-tournament matchup both teams were aggressive on counter attacks, sending numbers forward without much regard for what would happen should the ball be turned back the other way.
This style of play led to many chances, but each team was also sloppy, as both struggled to find the final pass or shot to find the net. These final third mishaps are what led to the low scoring 1-0 Matilda victory.
That style of play however is not recommended for either side in this matchup, especially not the Matildas.
The French have gotten better and better as this tournament has progressed and shook off their early struggles in the final third to now have scored 10 goals in their past two games.
Their pace and finesse was simply too much to handle for Morocco as they sliced through their midfield, fullbacks, and centre backs like a hot knife through butter. This led to a 4-0 drubbing.
Australia, though coming off two very strong matches against Canada and Denmark showed that defensively they can be taken advantage of with pace by way of their 3-2 loss to Nigeria.
This isn’t to say they should completely go away from their counter attacking style of play as it is their greatest offensive asset. But they must be wary of when to commit bodies forward and when to play conservatively, because France have not been missing the same chances they were in that final tune up match.
France can’t get ahead of themselves on the attack either. This Matilda counterattack is real and the deep through balls that they connected on against Denmark were world class.
The French did allow three goals to Panama showing they aren’t perfect defensively and they too should be cautious of getting caught with too many numbers up the pitch.
Both teams will still look to get the ball out wide and use their pace to attack the defense. They’ll just be more likely to do so while staying in structure than they were in their previous exhibition game.
