A goal in both halves from the tournament’s leading scorer Marie-Antoinette Katoto helped France secure the top spot in Group A after a hard-fought 2-1 success over New Zealand in Lyon.
With the qualification gate to Group A now blown wide open following Canada’s dramatic 102nd-minute match-winner against France, Les Bleues entered calculations on Wednesday evening without injured captain Wendie Renard.
All four nations were still able qualify for the knockout stages, including being one of the two best third-place sides.
New Zealand reinstated Michaela Foster, Annalie Longo and Grace Jale into the starting XI, needing all three points from their game in Lyon.
How it happened
Knowing avoiding defeat would guarantee their place in the quarter-finals, France amassed over two-thirds of possession throughout the opening exchanges.
The hosts nearly found the opening goal shortly after the quarter-hour mark, however, New Zealand goalkeeper Anna Leat, first, stuck out her leg to stop Grace Geyoro’s effort before getting down low to palm away Sakina Karchaoui’s strike from distance.
Nonetheless, nothing prevented Les Bleues from gaining the lead soon after, as Sandy Baltimore’s delicious delivery into the danger zone was headed home by Marie-Antoinette Katoto despite Leat’s best efforts to keep the ball from crossing the line.
With it appearing France would head into half-time with a slender advantage, New Zealand shocked Renard’s side.
Only moments after CJ Bott had nearly redirected Delphine Cascarino’s effort into her own net, Katie Taylor beat Pauline Peyraud-Magnin from distance with a sensational dipping strike that nestled itself nicely into the bottom corner.
Second half
Determined to regain their lead as soon as possible, it took Katoto only four minutes following the restart to put the French back ahead, as she clinically converted Karchaoui’s pin-point positioned cross from close range.
Cascarino then hit the woodwork twice in a matter of minutes with a backwards glancing header, followed by a fiercely-struck strike, as Les Bleues attempted to pull ahead of New Zealand at the start of the second 45.
Surprisingly, Renard withdrew the hat-trick-seeking Katoto shortly after the hour mark in favour of the equally dangerous Kadidiatou Diani as Cascarino hit another effort at Leat.
Despite Diani frustratingly failing to again open her goalscoring account at the 2024 Olympic Games, Les Bleues never looked like losing the game from that point onwards as they calmly confirmed their place in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s return flight departs France sooner than the Football Ferns would have wanted, after accumulating zero points against Canada, Brazil and tonight’s opponents.
Hervé Renard’s side will now play Brazil, who will be without the legendary figure of Marta following her red card against Spain,
The two sides will meet in the quarter-finals on 3 August 2024.
Starting XI’s
New Zealand: Leat; Bott, Bowen ©, Stott, Foster; Riley, Longo, Taylor, Kitching; Jale, Hand
France: Peyraud-Magnin; De Almeida, Lakrar, Mbock, Karchaoui; Henry ©; Geyoro, Bacha; Baltimore, Cascarino, Katoto
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