Key events
24 min: Now Debinha grooves infield from the left but can’t quite get a shot away. The ball dribbles through to Peyraud-Magnin. This is a good response to falling behind by Brazil, and especially Debinha.
23 min: Debinha jinks in gracefully from the right and cuts back for Adriana, in a huge pocket of space just inside the French box. Adriana opens her body and attempts to steer into the top right. High and wide. A huge chance spurned.
22 min: Brazil paint some pretty triangles down the inside-right channel, Luana at the sharp end of most of them. But France stay firm. No way through.
21 min: Brazil are really up against it now. According to Jonathan Pearce on the BBC, they’ve never won a World Cup game having fallen behind, while France have never lost one after going ahead.
19 min: Le Sommer has looked super-lively from the get-go, and now she’s got her reward. That’s her 90th goal for France.
GOAL! France 1-0 Brazil (Le Sommer 17)
Another clever guided header by Le Sommer, and this time she’s not to be denied! Karchaoui, quarterbacking from a deep position on the left, rakes a long diagonal cross towards Diani, who rises highest at the far stick. Diani heads across goal. Le Sommer, six yards out, steers a header across Leticia and into the net for a wonderfully crafted opener!
16 min: Le Sommer and Dali combine niftily down the right but the latter is halted by a fine sliding tackle from Rafelle. But France come again, and …
15 min: Bacha clanks into the back of Kerolin, 25 yards from the French goal. Adriana takes the free kick and attempts to whip one into the bottom left. Too much whip, and it flies harmlessly wide left.
13 min: Lauren ships possession carelessly in midfield and France counter at speed. Le Sommer enters the box down the right and could legitimately go down having been clipped by Rafelle, but sportingly stays upright. She nearly gets her reward from the next phase of play, when a Dali cross comes in from the right. She steers a header towards the bottom right only to be denied by Leticia’s outstretched arm. Fine play all round.
11 min: Geyse presses hard, causing Lakrar to roll a hospital pass to Peyraud-Magnin, who is forced to hack clear in a panic. Then another French rush of blood as Dali slides in recklessly on Tamires and picks up the first booking of the evening.
9 min: A breezy start to the game segues into a slight lull. Both teams unwilling to show their hand too early.
7 min: Perisset has a dig from 25 yards. The ball flies 25 yards over the bar. Hey, if you don’t buy a ticket, etc.
6 min: Karchaoui chases after a ball down the inside-left channel, enters the area, and falls to the floor in the vague environs of the covering Antonia. Karchaoui wants a penalty but the referee is quite rightly not interested. We play on.
5 min: Dali’s neat footwork releases Diani down the right. A cutback makes it all the way through to Toletti, arriving late from deep. Toletti shoots, but not particularly fiercely, and Leticia claims easily.
3 min: France’s turn to show in attack. Perisset rolls a clever ball down the right to release Le Sommer into acres. Le Sommer can’t find Diani in the middle with her low cross, intercepted by Rafelle, but the flag pings up for offside.
2 min: Brazil are on the front foot early doors. Debinha feeds the rampaging full back Antonia down the right. Antonia whips in low. Peyraud-Magnin gathers easily enough, and it turns out the ball had gone out for a throw anyway.
France get the ball rolling. Here we go, then. The Brisbane crowd is bubbling away nicely. One hell of an atmosphere.
The teams are out! France wear blue, Brazil yellow. This is not breaking news. Neither is the fact that both La Marseillaise and Hino Nacional Brasileiro are absolute bangers. A couple of truly great anthems that scream SEISMIC EVENT HAPPENING RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes! “Good that both Wendie Renard and Marta are in the picture,” writes Charles Antaki, who is anticipating one heck of a battle. “Shame that this wasn’t a knockout game, especially the final; one could easily imagine Fifa having made a special rule that if it came to it after penalties were indecisive, they’d get all the other players off the field and make it a one-to-one battle between these two, possibly relocated to the top of Uluru or an extinct volcano in New Zealand.”
France have the sign over Brazil right now. They’ve won six and drawn one of the last seven matches between the countries. Here’s what happened the last time they met at the World Cup, four years ago.
Brazil will make it through to the knockout stage if they win this one. They’ll not be the first team in yellow to get there, though. Australia Sweden have beaten them to it, having just completed a 5-0 demolition of Italy. Sarah Rendell reports on a tight tussle that suddenly morphed into a rout.
Edification dept. Our experts took a pre-tournament deep delve into the chances of both teams. Here’s what they had to say.
The big news for France: influential captain and defensive lynchpin Wendie Renard has shrugged off a calf injury and made it. Marta, the all-time top goalscorer at Women’s World Cups with 17, is on Brazil’s bench.
The teams
France: Peyraud-Magnin, Perisset, Lakrar, Renard, Karchaoui, Toletti, Geyoro, Dali, Diani, Le Sommer, Bacha.
Subs: Durand, Fazer, de Almeida, Majri, Mateo, Tounkara, Le Garrec, Asseyi, Feller, Cascarino, Becho, Picaud.
Brazil: Leticia, Antonia, Lauren, Rafaelle, Tamires, Ary Borges, Kerolin, Luana, Adriana, Debinha, Geyse Ferreira.
Subs: Barbara, Kathellen, Andressa, Ana Vitoria, Marta, Bruninha, Duda, Beatriz, Monica, Angelina, Gabi Nunes, Camila Gomes.
Referee: Kate Jacewicz (Australia).
Preamble
According to the Fifa rankings, France are the fifth best team in the world, while Brazil are ranked eighth. This is quite the first-round showdown, then, partly as both countries harbour realistic hopes of winning their first World Cup, but mainly because France have suffered a cold start and will be in a little spot of bother if they lose today …
… while Brazil opened their campaign by trouncing Panama 4-0 and scoring a team goal of outrageous quality …
… so France boss Hervé Renard will desperately be hoping Wendie Renard recovers from injury in time to face Ary Borges, who already has three tournament goals to her name. This has the potential to be an absolute cracker. Kick off at Lang Park, Brisbane is at 8pm local time, 11am in the UK. It’s on!
