Olympic Lyonnais and Le Bleues defender Wendie Renard scored a brace as France began their 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup (FIFAWWC) campaign with a 4-0 win over Korea Republic.
From the blast of the whistle, France stamped their authority on the game, pressing high and giving the Koreans little or no room to settle into the match.
France were direct in possession making use of the pace and trickery of D. Cascarino and Eugenie Le Sommer on the wings and it was only a matter of time before the first goal went in.
Le Sommer finished off a well worked cut-back from the Captain on the night, Amandine Henry to give Le Bleues the lead in the 9th minute in what has become the fastest goal in the history of the FIFAWWC.
From them on, it was all about the French side who kept pouring forward in search of more goals while forcing the Koreans into errors whenever they were in possession.
In the 27th minute, Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used for the first time in the history of the FIFAWWC as Mbock Bathy’s volleyed goal was chalked off after the midfielder was rightly adjudged to be offside.
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Korea’s goalkeeper, M.J Kim was then called into action as she tipped over Le Sommer’s angled strike to keep her side in the game. But it wasn’t enough as Renard opened her FIFAWWC account in the 35th minute with a towering header from the resulting corner-kick.
The centre-back soon got her second and France’s third from a similar situation as France completely subdued the Koreans to lead 3-0 at the break.
In the second half it was a controlled performance from the host with the opposition posing no threat for the majority of the second half as they failed to capitalise on a Renard error.
Henry however capped off a brilliant game with a sumptuous strike in the closing stages as France equalled the highest ever winning margin in a FIFAWWC opening match.
Tomorrow night, Nigeria and Norway will go head to head as the race for qualification from Group A continues.
