Sunday evening will be an evening full of excitement and sensation at the Stade Océane in Le Havre. France will have to conquer a place in its own country in the quarterfinals, where it will hit Spain or the United States. This is at the expense of Brazil. Yet the Brazilian ladies have proved to be a formidable opponent. Who is the strongest in the fight?
France:
To date, the French have never moved further than fourth in a world championship, but this year Les Bluees meets expectations. They became first in the group and therefore they reached the eighth final. The level of the national team is progressing rapidly in women’s football. A large part of the selection, including star player Wendie Renard, is active at Olympique Lyon. La Reine has been seen for years as the strongest women’s football club and has therefore won the Champions League four times in succession. Purely by that status and the additional benefit as a host country, the bookmakers bombed the French as one of the favorites for a first place in this final round.
France is the home country and traditionally opened the 2019 World Cup. South Korea was very convincingly won in the opening match. With their 4-4-2 line-up they played the Koreans away and the score went up to 4-0. The opponent had not even hit the target. Norway turned out to be harder to beat, but thanks to a penalty from the VAR, a reasonable France managed to qualify for the eighth finals. Only Nigeria had to be won to secure the first place in the group. France was better throughout the match, but was unable to score. Nigeria scored and for a moment it seemed to be difficult for the French. Yet they were awarded a penalty, but it was shot wide. Danny Makkelie intervened as VAR and had the penalty taken again, so that France still won. With nine out of three, Les Bluees go to the eighth finals.
Brazil:
The Brazilian ladies have also won a place in the eighth finals, just like the previous World Cup. In 2015 that was also the end station after a loss against Australia. Now the opponent seems difficult, but the South American country leaves a fresh impression on the tournament. Striker Cristiane and offensive midfielder Marta are working on a strong tournament. Both have now passed 33, but have already won several individual prizes and a long, rich club history. The ladies are most likely busy with their last world championship and want to put down a good performance one more time, but then it will be a big challenge against the French.
The Brazilians have placed themselves through third place. The best four number three also qualified for the eighth finals and Brazil was the best number three with six points. The difficult draw is therefore due to the lean goal balance. The tournament started with a flawless 3-0 victory against Jamaica. Cristante scored a hat trick and the whole team regained confidence for the game against Australia. In that game, Brazil played 2-0, but they gave the game away and it ended in 2-3. Against Italy, As Canarinhas then had one point enough, but after an equalizing game it became 0-1 for Brazil from a penalty.
