The French team will challenge a team from Australia on Saturday morning, carried by a whole country, and animated by an extra soul.
The level clearly goes up a notch for the Blues. After a fairly quiet round of 16 against Morocco, the France team challenged Australia in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Hervé Renard’s players will thus face one of the hosts of the competition, a country which has fallen in love with its Matildas, which are a popular hit during this World Cup.
However, the Australians have come a long way, as Ellie Carpenter told a press conference. “When I grew up, I played in a boys’ team, not in a girls’ team. I went to see a Matildas game when I was 12, I think there must have been 300 people in the stadium. But it still made me want to play for Australia. I dreamed of being on this ground with the girls”said the Olympique Lyonnais player.
Ellie Carpenter got emotional reflecting on the growth of women’s football 🥹
🗣️ ‘I didn’t have a girls team. I watched the Matildas when I was 12 and there were 300 people there.’
The full press conference 📲 https://t.co/tFy1tCgiSx#OptusSport #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/MZZYqF1B0q
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) August 11, 2023
“And if I were a 12-year-old girl today, I would be seeing the stadiums full of this World Cup, it’s extraordinary. It is unimaginable to have gone so far. I’m so proud to be part of this generation, of what we’ve done to change women’s sport in Australia, and not just football.”admits Carpenter.
“Our job during this World Cup was to inspire the next generation, she adds. To hear how many people are watching our games, going to the stadium, to hear that they’re going to be showing our game on Saturday in four major stadiums in Australia, it’s just amazing. When we go to the stadium and see these people with our shirts, cheering us on, it’s touching. » Les Bleues are thus warned, it is a team carried by an extra soul that they will face.
