Qualified for the round of 16 of the Women’s World Cup, Hervé Renard’s France team expects to face Germany, a selection that does not succeed in Eugénie Le Sommer, the star striker of Les Bleues.
It is this Thursday around 2 p.m. that the French women’s team will be set on their opponent in the round of 16 of the World Cup organized in Australia and New Zealand. Hervé Renard’s Bleues finished at the top of their group and could fall on Germany, currently 2nd in their group after being beaten by Colombia. At 12 p.m. (French time), the female Mannschaft plays South Korea, the Colombians face Morocco.
The Germans would start as clear favorites against the French, after having dominated them (especially physically) a year ago, in the semi-finals of the Women’s Euro (2-1). Eugénie Le Sommer will be quite a reinforcement compared to last year (she was dismissed by Corinne Deacon). But this German selection does not succeed at all for the 34-year-old striker, who has scored only once in 10 matches against this European rival.
A 9-year drought
The Lyon striker had never scored in her career against the Frauenteam before a clash in 2018 during the SheBelieves Cup (the mini-tournament organized each year in the United States). And again, the opposing coach, Steffi Jones, after two games without a win, had changed half of her eleven to finish. The French women’s team, with its standard team, won 3-0.
Launched in 2009 with Les Bleues, “ELS” had not saved his team at Euro 2009 by entering the game. Then, for nearly a decade, being a holder each time, she never managed to to score against the Germans, whether in 5 friendlies (even the 4-0 victory in 2017), at the 2015 World Cup (in the quarter-finals) and in the 2017 and 2018 editions of the SheBelieves Cup.
