Izuchukwu OkosiFrance topped Group F of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Wednesday after surviving a scare to earn a pulsating 6-3 win over Panama.
Head coach of the French women’s national team, Herve Renard, had warned his players not to take anything for granted against the unheralded Panamanians and came from behind to restore their pride with the former champions leading 4-1 at half time.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelPanama scored two goals in the second half before Kadi Diani – playing as stand-in captain – scored a double in the game to advance to the knockout stages.
Marta Cox had opened the floodgates of goals from a fabulous free kick within two minute of kickoff.
“I just think they were looking for easy way out tonight,” the former Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire and Saudi Arabia coach told the media in his post match news conference.
“We were 5-1 up, with the game in the bag… you see this often in football. It was poor attitude from the girls for a few minutes.
“The devil is in the detail in games like this, and this shows the younger girls not to take anything for granted,” Renard added.
The France coach rested captain Wendie Renard and all-time top scorer Eugenie le Sommer among five changes from the 2-1 win over Brazil, and he felt some of the incoming players had failed to impress.
“We rested a lot of players, and it shows those who want to be part of the XI need to pull their socks up, as it wasn’t good enough at times tonight,” he said.
France will face the runners up in Group H – possibly Germany – in the last 16.
Meanwhile, debutants Panama, already eliminated from the tournament before this game, have lost all three matches at their first World Cup.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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