Australia’s friendly win ‘out the window’ as Matildas prepare for real test against France

“For sure they are going to be confident [on Saturday], they’re France. They’re going to come out and show that they are confident but that doesn’t bother us at all — we’ve played them recently.”

Australia last faced France in an international friendly on Bastille Day, a week out from the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Continuing their killing of European giants, the Matildas prevailed with a 1-0 victory over Les Bleus after Mary Fowler came off the bench and netted the game’s only goal in the 66th minute.

But with the coup counting for nothing more than national pride and a slight confidence boost heading into football’s pinnacle tournament, Carpenter believes Saturday night’s showdown at Brisbane Stadium will be a “completely different” encounter.

“This is a World Cup, anything can happen,” she said.

“Yes, we beat them four weeks ago [but] it’s going to be a completely different game. Yes, we have [that win] mentally over them, but [on Saturday], all that is out the window.”

The warm-up match did however allow the Matildas to experience their opponents’ lineup and collect valuable footage which will go a long way in helping Australia navigate the French team’s strengths and weaknesses.

After a shaky start to the tournament with a nil-all draw with Jamaica in their opening group match, it seems the French have played themselves into the competition, culminating with a three-goal blitz over eight minutes in their round of 16 win over Morocco.

“I think they’ve proven over this tournament that they have extreme attacking threats: central, left and right, they attack with numbers, they’re brave, technical, fast, [they] don’t hesitate to send a lot of numbers forward — look at their goal scoring as well,” Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson told media.

“The one thing that I think they really instilled going into this tournament is their work ethic when they lose the ball. They are extremely aggressive when they lose the ball so you get very little time on the ball when you win it. So, I think that will be the extra they have over us and that will be our No.1 challenge to solve.”

Asked what is Australia’s edge over France, Gustavsson turned to Carpenter and said with a grin: “How much do we reveal here Ellie?”

“We have proven over this tournament that our defensive structure and our defensive work rate have been enormous,” he said.

“We’ve kept five clean sheets out of the last six games not just thanks to a good goalkeeper and a good backline, but a team effort in defending.

“We’ve also been very composed in front of our goal. Our final passes and our finishing has been clinical if you look statistically as well.

“So, once we do break that pressure, we know how fast we can attack and we have some players in tremendous form right now and you want that when you go into quarter finals — individuals in one moment that can decide a game.”

With so many things that punters can read into, Carpenter said only one thing was certain.

“It’s anyone’s game [on Saturday] but when it comes to knock-out football and the World Cup, I think it comes down to who wants it the most and who is passionate and who really wants to give it their all,” she said.

“It’s who’s got that fight, who’s got that aggressiveness. That’s what it comes down to in these sorts of games. “