Best players, fixtures, route to final & more

An interesting advertisement from Orange promoting France’s World Cup 2023 campaign has gone viral.

At first, it appears to show the men’s team – featuring star names like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Kingsley Coman – tearing apart various opposition. They weave through them inside and out, carve them open and score a wide array of goals.

But all is not as it seems. Rewinding the footage reveals that the images have been doctored, with the men’s players’ likenesses pasted over that of the women’s team.

It’s sparked excitement that France could establish themselves as a major force in the women’s game with World Cup glory. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of their campaign Down Under.

Women’s World Cup

Women’s European Championship

France didn’t even need to get out of first gear in order to book their place at the World Cup, winning all ten of their qualifying fixtures and tearing apart every team that stood in their path.

Les Bleues ended their qualifying campaign having scored 54 goals and conceded only four, keeping seven clean sheets in those ten matches.

Wendie Renard

You’ll be hard pressed to find a player both more iconic and dominant than France captain Wendie Renard at this World Cup.

146 senior caps to her name. 34 goals from centre-back. Standing tall at 6’2. A Knight of the National Order of Merit, one of her country’s highest honours.

If you’re watching France for the first time this tournament, you’ll be able to tell immediately that Renard is a standout star.

Grace Geyoro

For WSL fans, it was a real shame that Grace Geyoro’s move from PSG to Chelsea last summer couldn’t get over the line.

The elegant midfielder flitters between the lines with, well, grace, but crashes the box like the most lethal of finishers.

Geyoro heads to the World Cup as one of the game’s premier players and with only a further chance to enhance her legacy.

Kadidiatou Diani

The absence of the injured Marie-Antoinette Katoto has the potential to derail France’s World Cup hopes entirely, and a lot of pressure has been placed on the shoulders of Kadidiatou Diani.

But the striker – officially without a club after leaving PSG but expected to join Lyon soon – has the temperament and ability to lead the line in Katoto’s absence.

She notably stood beside Katoto and Renard during February’s protest against the ‘lack of professionalism’ in the French setup, ultimately leading to the sacking of head coach Corinne Diacre.

Herve Renard

Here he is. The Argentina conqueror. The Eurosport lunchtime legend. The king of AFCON.

Herve Renard is making his first foray into women’s football, resigning from his lucrative job in charge of Saudi Arabia’s men’s national team in order to take on the role with Les Bleues.

France won their first three games under his stewardship before falling to hosts Australia in their final pre-World Cup friendly.

He brings with him a wealth of tournament experience having twice won the Africa Cup of Nations and performed a near-miracle with Saudi Arabia at the 2022 World Cup.

Would France have preferred to have been drawn in a group that wasn’t with South American champions Brazil? Yeah, probably.

Nevertheless, they should have plenty left to get out of the group and into the last 16, though they’ll likely need to top the group to avoid an early matchup with Germany.

Australia are likely to await France in the quarter-finals, where they would probably meet their demise. Should they advance though, then Germany could rear their heads again or European champions England could await.

Should France get to the final, it’ll almost certainly be the United States they’ll have to topple.

There’s a lot of promise in the French camp heading into the World Cup, but their various injury woes will make it hard for them to look like a polished product.

Renard has only been in charge for a few months, so perhaps this tournament will come too soon for him to have the desired positive effect.

France are a good team and deserve to be mentioned among the world’s best sides, but they’re not quite ready to make the leap to serious contenders just yet.

Prediction: Quarter-finals

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