France beat South Korea 4-0 as women’s World Cup kicks off

Hosts France laid down a marker in the opening game of the women ’ s World Cup as towering defender Wendie Renard scored twice in a rampant 4 – 0 win over South Korea to kick off the tournament in style in Paris on Friday .

A sell – out crowd of 45 , 261 filled the Parc des Princes to watch the start of what is billed as the biggest women ’ s World Cup yet , but there was no sign of the pressure getting to the French on the big occasion .
Les Bleues are among the favourites to win the trophy on home soil and they showed no mercy to the Koreans , with the prolific Eugenie Le Sommer giving them an early lead and Renard — the tallest player at the tournament — twice heading home before the interval .

Captain Amandine Henry, impressive throughout , wrapped up the win late on in this Group A encounter .
The display was watched by France’ s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte , who were in the crowd alongside Gianni Infantino

The FIFA chief had this week promised the month – long tournament would see the “ explosion ” of the women ’ s game as he was waved in for a second term at the head of world football ’ s governing body . Almost a million tickets have been sold for matches in the nine host cities .

This was certainly a fine start , despite the unseasonably cold Parisian evening , with the French showing their credentials having been set the target by their own federation of going all the way to the final in Lyon on July 7 .

The problem for Corinne Diacre ’ s team is that , if they win their group , they could well end up facing reigning champions the United States back in Paris in the quarter -finals .
The USA , whose legal battle to be paid the same as their male counterparts has made waves in the run – up to the tournament , start their campaign against Thailand on Tuesday in Reims .

Ranked fourth in the world , the French have underperformed at recent major tournaments, losing in the quarter – finals of the last World Cup, Euro 2017 and the last Olympics.
Diacre is relying on a core of players from Lyon, Europe ’ s leading club side who won a fourth successive Champions League title last month

– VAR plays role –
There were seven Lyon players in the French starting line – up here , and two of them combined for the ninth – minute opener , captain Henry with the low ball into the box for Le Sommer to fire in off the crossbar. It was Le Sommer ’ s 75 th goal for her country.
France’ s defender Wendie Renard ( RL ) is congratulated by teammates after scoring a goal during the France 2019 Women ’ s World Cup Group A football match between France and South Korea , on June 7 , 2019 , at the Parc des Princes stadium , in Paris .

France thought they had a second before the half – hour mark when Renard ’ s header down was hooked into the net by her fellow centre – back Griedge Mbock , but after the celebrations had finally died down, the goal was disallowed for an extremely tight offside following a VAR review .

The 1 . 87 metre Renard was not to be denied , however , as she headed in Gaetane Thiney’ s corner from the right in the 35 th minute to make it 2 – 0 .

She did it again in first – half stoppage time , this time heading in a corner from the other side by Amel Majri .
Korea can count themselves lucky that this did not turn into a full – blown rout , although the excellent Henry curled in a delightful fourth from 20 yards with five minutes left .

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