French women's national soccer team / World Championships

France
France

World Cup record scorer :	Marie-Laure Delie and Eugénie Le Sommer (5 each)
World Cup record player:	Eugénie Le Sommer and Gaëtane Thiney (16 each)
Rank :	9
Organizer:	2019
Balance sheet
19 World Cup games 10 wins 3 draws 6 defeats 32:20 goals
statistics
First World Cup game France 0-2 Norway Philadelphia ( USA ); September 20, 2003
Biggest World Cup victory France 5: 0 Mexico Ottawa ( CAN ); 17th June 2015
Biggest World Cup defeats France 0-2 Norway Philadelphia ( USA ); September 20, 2003 France 2: 4 Germany Mönchengladbach ( DEU ); July 5, 2011 France 1: 3 USA Mönchengladbach ( DEU ); July 13, 2011 France 0-2 Colombia Moncton ( CAN ); June 13, 2015
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	4 ( first : 2003 )
Best results	Fourth 2011
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of June 28, 2019 )

The article contains a detailed account of the French national football team for women at World Cups . France was able to qualify for three women's World Cup finals, was once automatically qualified as hosts and is the best team in the all-time table with only four appearances. However, they have so far not been able to build on the successes of their male colleagues .

The national team at world championships

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1991	People's Republic of China	not qualified				Failed in qualifying by Sweden .
1995	Sweden	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Italy , which could not qualify either.
1999	United States	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Italy and Finland , which could not qualify either.
2003	United States	Preliminary round	Norway , South Korea , Brazil	9.	Elisabeth Loisel	Marinette Pichon scores the only World Cup goals for France.
2007	People's Republic of China	not qualified
2011	Germany	3rd place match	Sweden	4th	Bruno Bini	Semi-final against the USA
2015	Canada	Quarter finals	Germany	5.	Philippe Bergeroo	In the group stage , the team met England , Mexico and Colombia . As group winners, South Korea was defeated in the quarterfinals and thanks to the results of two other European teams, the Olympic ticket for 2016 was booked. Out by penalty shoot-out in the quarterfinals
2019	France	Quarter finals	United States		Corinne Diacre	On March 19, 2015, France was chosen to host the 2019 World Cup. Made the knockout round with three wins against South Korea, Norway and Nigeria.

statistics

(Information incl. 2019: eight world championships)

• not participated: never (0%)
• not qualified: four times (50%; 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2007)
• athletic qualifications: three times (37.5%)
• Qualified as a host: once (12.5%)
  • Preliminary round: once (12.5%; 2003)
  • Quarter-finals: twice (25%; 2003, 2019)
  • Match for 3rd place / fourth place: once (12.5%; 2011)

The tournaments

World Cup 1991 in the People's Republic of China

France was unable to qualify for the first women's World Cup . In the EM qualification , which was considered the first stage of the World Cup qualification, the team failed to Sweden . In the group stage France met Sweden and Poland in a group of three, from which only the group winners qualified for the quarter-finals . Although the French won both games against the Poles, they also lost both to the Scandinavians. France was eliminated, the Swedes did not qualify for the EM after two draws in the quarter-finals against Italy due to the away goals rule . But since they hadn't lost a game, they were the fifth European team to go to the World Cup.

World Cup 1995 in Sweden

The French women could not qualify for the World Cup in Sweden . Although they finished the group stage of the European Championship qualification level with the Italians , both the direct comparison (2: 0 and 1: 1) and the better goal difference (+11 to +6) spoke for Italy. After a 2-1 defeat by the Italians against the Portuguese , the French had to book the World Cup ticket. With a win by nine goals against the Scottish women , whose defense was not the best in the 2: 8 against Portugal, France could have pushed past the English women in the last game. But it only reached a 3-0 win against the Scottish women. Italy then eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 1995 European Championship with two defeats against Norway , which was the first European team to win the women's World Cup title at the World Cup.

France (and Italy) missed the first women's football tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games , in which only the eight best teams from the World Cup could take part.

World Cup 1999 in the USA

For the third World Cup, UEFA then set separate qualifying matches for the first time and to date the only continental association. In the qualification , France met Italy again, as well as Finland and Switzerland . The French, who have been coached by Élisabeth Loisel since 1997 , only won the games against Switzerland, drew against Finland and Italy. but lost the remaining games. France was only third. Group winners Italy qualified for the World Cup, Finland failed in the playoffs of the group runners-up to Russia . But France had again missed the women's soccer tournament at the 2000 Olympic Games , in which, apart from hosts Australia, only the seven best teams from the World Cup could take part.

2003 World Cup in the USA

The 2003 World Cup should actually take place again in the People's Republic of China . Because of the SARS epidemic, the tournament was moved to the USA at short notice. This was the second time that the World Cup took place in the USA. In the qualification , France met Olympic champions Norway, Ukraine and the Czech Republic . France lost both games to the Northern Europeans, but won all of them against the Central and Eastern Europeans. Norway, which only surrendered one point in Ukraine, qualified directly for the World Cup. As runners-up in the group, France had to go through the relegation games of the runners-up in the group. Here they first met Denmark and after a 2-0 home game, a 1-1 draw in Denmark was enough for the relegation finals against the English women. As both games were won 1-0, France qualified for the women's World Cup for the first time.

In the United States, the French met again in their first World Cup game on September 20, 2003 in Philadelphia against qualifying group opponents Norway and lost 2-0. In the second game against South Korea they had to wait until the 84th minute before record scorer Marinette Pichon scored the first ever World Cup goal for the French women. In the last group game against Brazil they were 1-0 down into stoppage time, then Pichon scored the equalizer in the second minute of stoppage time. Since Norway had won 7-1 against South Korea in the parallel game, France only took third place, which meant the preliminary round. This meant that the French had missed the women's soccer tournament at the 2004 Olympic Games , in which, besides host Greece from Europe, only the two best European teams from the World Cup could take part.

World Cup 2007 in the People's Republic of China

Four years later the World Cup took place in the People's Republic of China for the second time . In qualifying , France, which was now trained by Bruno Bini , met England , the Netherlands , Austria and Hungary . France almost forgot the World Cup qualification with the first game, a 0-1 home defeat against the Dutch women. After that, all games were won - except against the English women, against whom there were two draws. In the end, the English women, who won all games against the other four opponents in the group, were ahead. France missed the three points from the first game. The French women thus missed the women's soccer tournament at the 2008 Olympic Games , in which only the three best European teams from the World Cup were able to take part.

World Cup 2011 in Germany

The French team before the game against Germany

Goalkeeper Bérangère Sapowicz , first “ red sinner ” of the French.

The French women could then qualify for the World Cup in Germany . They had already drawn attention to themselves at the European Championships in 2009 and were therefore seeded when the qualification groups were drawn. With Iceland , Serbia , Northern Ireland , Croatia and Estonia, the only opponents drawn were teams that had never been to a World Cup. France won all 10 games, scoring 50 goals and conceding no goal. The two victories against Iceland, which otherwise won all other games, were particularly decisive. The group winners were not directly qualified for the World Cup this time. Instead, the winners of the eight groups had to compete in a play-off round. For this purpose, the eight teams were divided into four seeded and four unseeded teams based on the results of the qualifying games for the European Championship 2009 and the World Championship 2011. France was one of the seeded teams and Italy was drawn. After a 0-0 win in Besançon , the second leg in Italy was 3-2 after a 0-1 deficit. This was the second time that France had qualified for the World Cup finals. Italy then prevailed in two more rounds against Ukraine and Switzerland to play off the third place in the CONCACAF qualification for the last place at the World Cup. Mexico was expected , but in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup 2010 the Mexicans surprisingly won a game against the USA for the first time, so that they qualified directly for the World Cup and Italy had to play against the USA. After two 0-1 defeats and most games by all teams, Italy was only allowed to watch.

Starting lineups in the game for 3rd place

France, on the other hand, was allowed to play the first game at the World Cup in the Germany group against Nigeria - even if not the official opening game. The realized Marie-Laure Delie with the 1: 0 victory hit the first goal of the World Cup. In the second game against Gold Cup winners Canada , they achieved one of the two highest tournament victories with a 4-0 win. Since defending champions Germany had also won against Nigeria and Canada, both were already in the quarter-finals before the last group match and it was only a matter of group victory, with the French women having to draw to win the group. In the game with the highest number of goals in the World Cup, France not only lost 4-2, but also goalkeeper Bérangère Sapowicz with a red card . She had received this when the score was 1: 2 after an action in the penalty area that was rated as an emergency brake. Substitute Celine Deville was unable to keep the penalty given . Laura Georges was able to shorten again a little later, but in the 89th minute the final score 2-4 had to be accepted. In the quarter-finals, France then benefited from England's weakness on penalties . After a goalless first half, England took the lead in the 59th minute, but Élise Bussaglia equalized two minutes before the end of regular time. In the extra time that followed, neither team managed to score, so it came to a penalty shoot-out . Although failed Camille Abily , the first French shooter, but otherwise met all French women. Of the English women, the last two shooters failed. England were eliminated undefeated, but were the only team to have defeated the eventual world champions Japan . The French women were in the semifinals of a major tournament for the first time and had thus also qualified for the women's soccer tournament at the 2012 Olympic Games , as only Sweden had reached the semifinals as another European team. Opponents in the semifinals were the US girls , who had also only saved themselves against vice world champions Brazil by taking penalties into the semifinals. The motto of the game was “Effectiveness beats creativity”, because although the French women were playfully overweight and had a large number of scoring chances, the Americans were able to prevail 3-1 because they used their few scoring chances more consistently. For France there was only the game for 3rd place against Sweden . After almost half an hour, the French fell behind with a goal from Lotta Schelin , who is playing at Olympique Lyon in France . Unfortunately, goalkeeper Bérangère Sapowicz was injured while trying to defend herself and had to be replaced, along with Louisa Nécib , who had already entered the game with problems . Shortly after the 1-0, the French failed attempts to shoot on the crossbar or the Swedish goalkeeper. In the second half, the French pushed for the equalizer and were rewarded in the 56th minute by the equalizer from Élodie Thomis . In the 68th minute Josefine Öqvist was sent off after violating Sonia Bompastor . Since the spectators could not see the assault, Bompastor was whistled every time the ball hit the ball. The French, who had previously gained the upper hand, could not exploit the numerical superiority - the Swedish team had the better scoring opportunities. One of them - after an unjustified corner - was used by substitute Marie Hammarström in the 82nd minute and scored the 2-1 winner with her first international goal. The fourth place is the best placement of the French women in a big tournament.

2015 World Cup in Canada

The French team before the qualifying match against Austria on October 31, 2013

After France failed again in the quarter-finals at the 2013 European Championship, national coach Bruno Bini was replaced by Philippe Bergeroo after 99 games . When the qualification groups were drawn , however, France was back in the game, avoiding its main competitors Germany, England, Norway and Sweden. The French women then prevailed again as winners in their group. Group opponents were Austria , Finland , Hungary , Kazakhstan and Bulgaria . The only problem was the long journey to Kazakhstan , which is in Central Asia and was a member of the Asian Continental Association until 2002. But the stresses of traveling were also overcome and a successful qualification was initiated with a 4-0 win in the first game in Kazakhstan. This was followed by two more away wins, before the 15-year-old record from a game against Algeria was set with a 14-0 home game against Bulgaria . After further victories, France qualified ahead of schedule for the World Cup finals on September 13, 2014 by beating their direct rivals Finland. Finland missed the second place, which surprisingly took the Austrians. But they were only sixth-best runner-up in the group and so missed the playoffs of the four best runners-up.

At the draw, France was placed fourth in the world rankings for the first time as a group head. The French were drawn to England , Columbia and Mexico , making this the only group without a continental champion.

In a close match against England "Les Bleues" initially prevailed 1-0, but then had a wrong day against Colombia, which had not won any of their four World Cup games, and lost 2-0. Against Mexico, they found their way back on track with a 5-0 win, the French women’s highest victory in a World Cup game to date, which Marie-Laure Delie paved with the second fastest goal in women's World Cup history after 34 seconds. Against South Korea she was the first goalscorer in the round of 16, but this time needed 3 minutes and 58 seconds. And also the final point to 3-0 was set by Delie, who is now the French record scorer with five goals. Since Sweden , Switzerland and Norway lost their round of 16 games, the French women were also able to book the tickets for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro early .

In the quarterfinals France lost to Germany on penalties. Although it dominated the game for long stretches, it deservedly took the lead, but then had to accept the equalizer with a penalty shortly before the end of regular time and finally lost in the penalty shoot-out.

World Cup 2019 in France

On March 19, 2015, it was decided that the 2019 World Cup tournament would be held in France. France is automatically qualified. At the World Cup, the French, who have been coached by the former national player Corinne Diacre since September 2017 , met South Korea in the opening game and won 4-0. After victories against Norway (2: 1) and Nigeria (1: 0), the round of 16 was reached, where they did not lose in the ninth game against South American champions Brazil and reached the quarter-finals 2-1 after extra time. In the quarter-finals, they met defending champions USA, who met the hosts for the first time in a World Cup game. The USA took the lead early with a free kick converted directly by Megan Rapinoe and rarely let the French come into play in the first half. When the French pressed for equalization in the second half, Rapinoe scored the second goal after a counterattack. Wendie Renard managed to hit the connection, but the Americans did not allow more. By going out, they also missed qualifying for the 2019 Olympic Games.

Games

The best World Cup goalscorers in France

Marie-Laure Delie

Eugénie Le Sommer

France has played 19 World Cup games so far. Ten of them were won - eight of them without a clean sheet. Six were lost and three ended in a draw. Two games went into overtime because a winner had to be determined and one was won and lost on penalties . France took part in the opening game twice (2003 and 2019) and played the first game in 2011, which is not considered the official opening game. In 2011 the French played against the hosts, who were also defending champions, and in 2019 as hosts against the defending champions, but so far not against the eventual world champions. Until 2015 all games were one-off, then there were the first repetitions at the 2015 World Cup against Germany, England and South Korea. With the opening game in 2019, South Korea became the French women’s most frequent World Cup opponents. Three games were the first so far against the respective opponents.

So far France has played against teams from all six confederations and against their champions, except Oceania.

Most of the games (16) played by Eugénie Le Sommer and Gaëtane Thiney, who replaced Laura Georges in the 2019 round of 16 against Brazil , who played in the first 14 World Cup games and did not miss a minute, as the record player. Marie-Laure Delie , who was also on the 2015 World Cup squad, and Eugénie Le Sommer scored the most goals (5), including the second fastest goal in a women's World Cup (after 34 seconds against Mexico by Delie). Delie is also the only player who is listed twice in the ranking of the 15 fastest goalscorers.

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
1	09/20/2003	0: 2	Norway	*	Philadelphia ( USA )	Group game	200th international match of the French women according to the FIFA count
2.	09/24/2003	1-0	South Korea	*	Washington, DC ( USA )	Group game	First game against South Korea
3.	09/27/2003	1: 1	Brazil	*	Washington, DC ( USA )	Group game	First game against Brazil
4th	06/26/2011	1-0	Nigeria	*	Sinsheim ( DEU )	Group game	First game against Nigeria. First game against a reigning African champion
5.	06/30/2011	4-0	Canada	*	Bochum ( DEU )	Group game	100th international match by Laura Georges , 300th international match for the French women according to FIFA figures
6th	07/05/2011	2: 4	Germany (TV)	A.	Mönchengladbach ( DEU )	Group game
7th	07/09/2011	1: 1 n.V., 4: 3 i. E.	England	*	Leverkusen ( DEU )	Quarter finals	By making it to the semi-finals, France qualified for the 2012 Olympics
8th.	07/13/2011	1: 3	United States	*	Mönchengladbach ( DEU )	Semifinals
9.	07/16/2011	1: 2	Sweden	*	Sinsheim ( DEU )	3rd place match
10	06/09/2015	1-0	England	*	Moncton ( CAN )	Group game
11	06/13/2015	0: 2	Colombia	*	Moncton ( CAN )	Group game
12	06/17/2015	5-0	Mexico	*	Ottawa ( CAN )	Group game
13	06/21/2015	3-0	South Korea	*	Montreal ( CAN )	Round of 16
14th	06/26/2015	1: 1 n.V .; 4: 5 i. E.	Germany	*	Montreal ( CAN )	Quarter finals
15th	07.06.2019	4-0	South Korea	H	Paris	Opening game
16	06/12/2019	2: 1	Norway	H	Nice	Group game
17th	06/17/2019	1-0	Nigeria	H	Rennes	Group game
18th	June 23, 2019	2: 1 a.d.	Brazil	H	Le Havre	Round of 16
19th	06/28/2019	1: 2	USA (TV)	H	Paris	Quarter finals

Note: Teams in bold were or are champions of their confederation at the time of the game.

Three wins by the French team were also the biggest wins against these countries:

•  Canada 4-0 (2011, preliminary round)
•  Mexico 5-0 (2015, preliminary round) - also a 5-0 in a friendly match
•  South Korea 4-0 (2019, opening game)

One defeat is the greatest against this country:

•  Colombia 0-2 (2015, preliminary round) - only defeat against Colombia

Records

team

• Biggest wins in a tournament: 2011 in Germany - France against Canada and Japan against Mexico, each 4-0 in the preliminary round

See also

• French national soccer team / world championships

Web links

• FIFA Women's World Cup ^TM

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Won 1 games on penalties
2. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games, see Technical Report FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 ™ , page 159
3. ↑ fifa.com: "France to host FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 ™"
4. ↑ Because England, the seventh best team, is not allowed to start at the Olympic Games, Brazil was able to take part as the ninth best team.
5. ↑ fifa.com: "Olympic Football Tournament Atlanta Women 1996"
6. ↑ fifa.com: Norway - France 2: 0 (0: 0)
7. ↑ France - Brazil 1: 1 (0: 0)
8. ↑ Italie France 2-3 (1-0)
9. ↑ framba.de: "Women's World Cup 2015: group draw degenerates into a farce" ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ fifa.com: “Numbers of the day.” ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.