France issued a Women's World Cup warning on Tuesday to set up a tasty quarter-final clash against Australia, with Colombia joining them in the last eight and facing England. A rampant France scored three times in eight minutes in a first-half blitz as they won 4-0 to bring Morocco's fairytale run to a brutal end. Veteran striker Eugenie Le Sommer scored twice, once in each half, and Kadidiatou Diani and Kenza Dali were also on the scoresheet in Adelaide. Herve Renard's side will now play co-hosts Australia in Brisbane on Saturday, with the winners of that going on to play either England or Colombia in the semi-finals.
"We fulfilled our objective. You always want a little bit more, but it's fine," Renard told broadcaster M6.
France were knocked out in the quarter-finals as hosts in 2019, losing to eventual winners the United States. A win against Australia will see them equal their best-ever performance at the World Cup, when they got to the last four in 2011.
"We have matched our performance of four years ago, but our objective was to do better than we did in 2011, so we know what we have left to do," Renard said.
Asked if his side could beat the Matildas in front of a hostile crowd, he added: "We are capable of doing it but it won't be easy, albeit not easy for either team." While France are desperate to win a first major women's international title, Morocco came into the game with the pressure off, their World Cup already a huge success.
They recovered from a 6-0 thrashing to Germany on their World Cup debut to exceed all expectations by defeating Colombia and South Korea to reach the knockout rounds.
Colombia make history
Colombia reached the quarter-finals for the first time and a meeting with England after a 1-0
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Eugenie Le-Sommer