Women’s World Cup: France edge out Brazil in thriller

France have moved to the top of Group F after a crucial late winner against Brazil at the Women’s World Cup.

Captain Wendie Renard headed in to give France the victory after a back-and-forth match in Brisbane.

Eugenie Le Sommer opened the scoring in the 17th minute before Debinha equalised in the second half.

Brazil would have qualified for the second round with a win, after beating Panama in their opening game, but will now need to wait until their final group game against Jamaica.

Jamaica meet Panama later today and could go above Brazil in the Group F table with a win.

France had already been stung by Jamaica in their opening match and a loss against Brazil would have put their hopes of progressing in doubt.

They bounced back though, with Le Sommer causing a nuisance to the Brazil back-line from the start. She forced goalkeeper Leticia into a save early on before heading in from eight yards to give France the lead.

Brazil hit back after the break though when Debinha was left in too much space in the area to finish into the bottom right corner.

But it was left to Renard to meet a corner at the back post and head in the winning goal seven minutes from time.

“I think the turning point came from Jamaica,” France top scorer Le Sommer said.

“Things got heated in the dressing room.

“Today we were up to scratch. We hope we can use this to improve even more so but it’s three points in the bag and we showed what we were made of.”

France meet Panama in their final group game on Wednesday knowing a point will be enough to book their place in the last-16. For Brazil, a win over Jamaica will see them through but, as the French already know, that is perhaps not as simple as it sounds.

Cover Photo: Flag of France, Undated” by nathanh100 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .