SYDNEY — Sizing up a fifth-ranked France lineup led by Wendie Renard is necessary for Panama’s gamers and training workers in planning for his or her Women’s World Cup group finale.

Combating the scoring menace on Wednesday takes it to a better degree, because the Brazilian staff discovered final weekend.

“Wendie, she is maybe one of the tallest players in the world,” France coach Hervé Renard stated of his veteran staff captain. “She has very good timing.”

She makes use of that top and timing to full benefit when she switches from protection to offense mode for the set items. Four of Renard’s 5 profession objectives on the Women’s World Cup have come from set items, together with the winner towards Brazil final weekend in a pivotal Group F encounter.

Brazil’s gamers and coaches centered on methods to defend the set items towards France and had been satisfied they had been prepared. Somehow, although, Renard discovered herself unmarked on the again submit to satisfy a nook kick from Selma Bacha, and in excellent place for a header to clinch a 2-1 win.

Panama took word.

PHOTOS: Wendie Renard makes use of top, timing to present France a crucial scoring possibility at Women's World Cup

“I don’t mind her size,” Panama defender Wendy Natis stated. “I don’t mind who she is. I want to go out there and do my job.”

Les Bleues went to the highest of the group with 4 factors following that win over Brazil, rebounding from a broadly criticized opening 0-0 draw towards Jamaica.

“She’s the best at inside set pieces,” French midfielder Kenza Dali stated of Renard. “I know if I do the right thing, she’s going to score.”

At 33 and in her fourth World Cup, Renard continues to be offering the solutions for France, even doing so whereas not totally wholesome. After coping with a lingering calf harm within the week main as much as the match towards Brazil, the captain’s availability to start out towards Panama is in query.

On Tuesday, France staff administration stated a choice on Renard’s match health can be left to recreation day.

The solely Panama participant who comes near Renard by way of top is goalkeeper Farissa Córdoba, who's an inch shorter at 6-feet-1 (1.85 meters).

“She can be really dangerous in high balls,” Panama coach Ignacio Quintana stated. “We’re going to try to present a game where we don’t have to put it so easy for her.”

Renard’s body and talent to attain within the air has been problematic for opponents at each membership and worldwide ranges.

At the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the place Renard was listed because the tallest participant in match, France opened play with a powerful 4-0 victory over South Korea. Renard scored twice from set items, elevating the hopes of the house followers.

But the host nation’s ambitions ran quick towards the United States with a 2-1 loss within the quarterfinals. A late header by Renard from an oblique free kick was the lone aim within the closing outing for Les Bleues in 2019.

Four years later, Renard has picked up the place she left off in Paris, scoring her thirty fifth worldwide aim at a time when it actually mattered.

“Of course she’s very good,” Renard, the coach, stated. “But the best quality of Wendie is that she’s a leader.”

Gathered behind Renard, France will goal to push previous its disappointing end in 2019 by beating Panama on its method to the knockout stage.

“I’m very lucky to have a captain like Wendie,” stated Hervé Renard, who guided Saudi Arabia on the males’s World Cup final yr and took over the French ladies’s staff in March. With France’s victory over Brazil, he turned the primary coach to win video games at each males’s and ladies’s World Cups.

He’d wish to assume his captain’s aim towards Brazil is only a style of what’s to return within the 2023 World Cup: “I hope it was only the first goal from her.”

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