It felt somewhat fitting that it was two of Lyon’s six-time Champions League winners stamping their mark on the Women’s World Cup opener. With Eugenie Le Sommer’s side-footed opener – her 11th goal in 11 internationals – followed by a Wendie Renard double header giving France a 3-0 first half lead, then added to by captain Amandine Henry for a 4-0 win, the vital Lyon spine of Les Bleus was evident.
Moments before kick off the rain that had rendered the sprinklers superfluous lifted, the sun came out and the floodlights beamed, just as the teams emerged from the tunnel and everything suddenly felt brighter. The grey of the weather and the ticketing and organisational chaos outside suddenly felt a lot less important to a heaving Parc des Princes bowl.
With La Marseillaise echoing round the stadium with gusto, tears in the eyes of many a French player evident, finally the football was starting.
In the second minute France made their first chance. Griedge Mbock Bathy’s crossfield pass found Eugenie Le Sommer on the touchline, she slipped a square pass to an onrushing Henry who laid off to Kadidiatou Diani but her shot was blocked, it fell to Henry though who whipped a shot across goal just wide of the far post. Buoyed by the home side’s early advances, the crowd’s roars were deafening, ‘Allez Les Bleus’ urging them to keep up the pressure.
Right-back Marion Torrent then found space on the right, she found Le Sommer through the middle but the Lyon forward couldn’t get enough power behind her shot and it is easy for Kim Min-jung.
With Korean left-back Jang Sel-gi struggling to contain Torrent and Delphine Cascarino the latter broke again on the right but her dangerous ball to the far side of the box was hooked away by West Ham’s Cho So-hyun.
Soon France’s hard work paid dividends, centre-back Kim Do-yeon, filling a gap left by Jang Sel-gi was robbed by Henry on the right and she raced clear finding Le Sommer with a perfectly weighted cut back to side foot in to send the excitable crowd wild.
With a goal relieving the nerves the crowd seemed calmer. But the home side continued to push a jittery South Korean defence.
It took until the quarter hour mark for the Asian side to force a way into the opposition half but Lyon’s imposing centre-back Bathy harried Jung Seol-bin off the ball with ease.
On 29 minutes Les Bleus looked to have doubled their lead, but the first ever VAR referral of a Women’s World Cup intervened. A short corner from Gaetane Thiney was pinged into the box by Henry, flicked across goal it fell behind Bathy but she hooked her leg back and volleyed in. The delighted French celebrations at the lovely finish were shortlived as Bathy was ruled offside.
Undeterred by the ruling another short corner found Diani on the edge of the area but her strike sailed cleanly over the bar.
Less than 10 minutes later and Bathy’s defensive partner, domestically and internationally, Renard secured the second. Another Thiney corner from the right was lofted into space by the far post and an incoming 6ft 1in Renard headed powerfully past Kim.
On the stroke of half time Renard scored another, this time a corner from the left was almost placed onto her head near the penalty spot and, with Hwang Bo-ram attempting to mark her, she powered the ball over the head of the defender and to the right of a stationary Kim.
With the bookies inclusion of Renard in their top-scorer odds looking decidedly less unlikely as the second half got under way.
Picking up where they left off France zipped the ball crisply across the slick surface. After 58 minutes they almost had another, a corner from the right, again, from Amel Majri, was headed just wide of her own goal by Jung Seol-bin.
On 63 minutes there was the chance for a rare South Korea limp charge. Having defended so deep, forcing Chelsea’s midfield magician Ji So-yun further and further back, there was no one remotely near the box for Kang Chae-rim, on for Kang Yumi, to cut back to and her ball into the middle was collected with one hand by another of Lyon’s six-time Champions League winners Sarah Bouhaddi.
Less than 10 minutes later and South Korea had another go, the substitute Kang Chae-rim again finding some space but shot over the bar from 20 yards.
With complacency starting to drift into France’s dominating performance the South Koreans carved out their best chance of the game. Another substitute Lee Min-a, almost looked confused at being played clean through between Renard and Bathy but she could only put her shot disappointingly wide of Bouhaddi’s right-hand post.
The French were still in control though. And Henry capped an commanding performance with a stunning effort further crush the Koreans with all the ruthlessness of her club side. Picking up a pass from Le Sommer she pushed forward before slamming a swerving right-footed shot from 20 yard into the corner.
The French have underachieved at major competitions in the past decade, given the quality of their squad. But now, on home soil, there is a feeling that finally everything is clicking. And, with the chance to be the first country to hold both the men’s and women’s World Cup’s at the same time on the cards, this performance showed Les Bleus are not letting the pressure get to them.