The Women’s World Cup kicks off this Thursday in Australia and New Zealand. In the France team, now led by Hervé Renard, “we really have this mix between experience, youth and talent”, judge Nadia Benmokhtar, football consultant for Radio France.
“The French team has every chance”, assured Thursday July 20 on franceinfo Nadia Benmokhtar, football consultant for Radio France while the Women’s World Cup begins Thursday July 20 in Australia and New Zealand. After several “successive crises” and last minute packages, “Les Bleues have gained stability” with the arrival of new coach Hervé Renard, according to her.
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But “it’s hard to put it in the favorites because it’s a team that is difficult to judge with all the changes”, she says. According to Nadia Benmokhtar, the United States, England are the favorites of the competition. The France team will enter the competition on Sunday July 23 at 12 noon against Jamaica, their first match of the group stage.
franceinfo: The United States team remains the favorite of the competition?
Nadia Benmokhtar: It’s true that it’s a team that is the favorite because of its quality, thanks to star players that we all know, like Alex Morgan or Megan Rapinoe, but also a young generation that is growing and who is very talented. It is above all a team that is carried by a confidence of which it alone has the secret. It feels like they always come into a competition to win it. They already have a psychological advantage over their opponents. Afterwards, there are other nations which can be considered as favourites. I’m thinking of the English too, who were the most impressive team this past year, who won the last Euro. The Germans, the Swedes who are not far behind. It’s a competition that will be very open, one of the most open in recent years.
France remains an outsider?
France remains a great nation. She has been present in the last competitions, she loses very few matches. Afterwards, it is true that it is difficult to put them in the favorites because it is a team which is difficult to judge with all the changes. There was little time for the new staff to prepare. There are also major players who were injured just before the competition, Delphine Cascarino or Amandine Henry. It is difficult to predict.
“It’s still a team that has a lot of talent”
Nadia Benmokhtar, football consultant for Radio Franceat franceinfo
Hervé Renard has already won with teams he had just recovered. After several successive crises and last-minute withdrawals, Les Bleues have gained stability with the arrival of new coach Hervé Renard. It’s difficult to put them in the favorites because there is a little wind of uncertainty.
What are our main strengths?
It’s a mix of experienced players, like Wendie Renard, Eugénie Le Sommer who may be playing their last competitions and who are thirsty to win, but also a growing youth, who is very talented, like Sakina Karchaoui, Selma Bacha, Clara Mateo. We really have this mix between experience, youth and talent. We have a lot of variety in our team with very different player profiles. The France team has every chance. These are players who are used to winning with their club. Now that little click is missing to finally win with the France team.
This World Cup does not raise the crowds and the media. Do you regret it?
This is still the historic record for tickets sold with real enthusiasm in Australia. On New Zealand, it’s a little harder. New Zealand was still a daring choice. It is not necessarily a country of football, for girls or for boys. It is a discipline that is still developing. We still suspected that the New Zealanders were not necessarily going to rush into the stadiums. FIFA was very greedy, at the start, asking for sums that seemed a bit absurd over a period of the year at the end of July-beginning of August, known for having low audiences and very low advertising revenues.
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FIFA, at the beginning, perhaps overestimated this product by overselling it and finally had to make concessions to find common ground with broadcasters. It’s never good news, these last-minute organizations because necessarily, the channels that have acquired the rights will not be able to put the expected devices in terms of coverage. They could not promote the competition. It’s good news that it’s on free channels, it will allow us to continue to democratize this discipline.