France stands in the way of the Matildas reaching the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-finals

The Matildas beat France last month, and now they need to do it again to reach the Women’s World Cup semi-finals.

France coach Herve Renard (right) congratulates goalscorer Eugenie Le Sommer during the 4-0 win over Morocco. Picture: Franck Fife / AFP

Familiar with the agonising feeling of falling short when hosting a FIFA Women’s World Cup, France intends to inflict similar pain on the Matildas in Saturday’s quarter-final showdown in Brisbane.

France moved into the last eight with a 4-0 thrashing of Morocco in Adelaide on Tuesday night.

It sets up a second meeting in the space of a month between the French and the Australians, with the Matildas’ winning 1-0 courtesy of a Mary Fowler goal when the teams met in a pre-World Cup friendly on July 14 in Melbourne.

However, France coach Herve Renard said that result would mean nothing come Saturday night.

“Your mindset is completely different for the quarter-finals,” Renard said.

“We’ve come with great ambition, and if you’ve come with great ambition, you need to be capable of beating the best teams.

“There’s nothing to fear here, but we will respect Australia because Australia has a lot of qualities.”

But Renard also pointed to the pressure Australia would be feeling as tournament co-hosts.

Four years ago, there were similar expectations on the French when they hosted the Women’s World Cup.

It wasn’t to be the fairytale finish that France wanted, with eventual tournaments winners USA knocking the hosts out in the quarter-finals.

“The host country, we know that can be a good or bad thing,” Renard said.

“This is what the French team went through in 2019. It can be hugely disappointing as it was for France when they were knocked out.

“We’re hoping to put Australia through exactly what France went through when they were the host country in 2019.

“We know exactly what we’re in for.”

Eugenie Le Sommer celebrates scoring France’s fourth goal against Morocco. Picture: Franck Fife / AFP

Since being beaten by Australia last month, the French – who are ranked fifth in the world – haven’t lost, having won three and drawn one of the four World Cup matches they have played.

They have also scored 10 goals in their past two games, including six against Panama last week in Sydney, in a significant show of tournament strength.

Renard has also tasted success previously against Australian opposition.

In his previous job as coach of Saudi Arabia’s men’s team, he guided his side to a 1-0 win over the Graham Arnold-coached Socceroos in March last year.

The Matildas, who are 10th in the world rankings, qualified for the quarter-finals with a 2-0 round-of-16 win over Denmark in Sydney on Monday night.

Caitlin Foord and Hayley Raso were the goalscorers, while captain Sam Kerr made her first appearance of the tournament as a second-half substitute after overcoming a calf injury.

French midfielder Kenza Dali, who scored against Morocco, rated the “unbelievable” Foord as the tournament’s “best player”.