Matildas to send out strongest lineup for friendly match against France

Matildas to send out strongest lineup for friendly match against France

Australia’s national women’s team – the Matildas – will send out their strongest possible lineup against France as they attempt to charge into their World Cup campaign. 

Australia will face the world No 5 in their send-off game in front of a sellout crowd at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Friday night, six days before their opening group match against Ireland. 

Aussie coach Tony Gustavsson has said he will heavily rotate his team. 

Striker Kyah Simon is unlikely to feature while other players, including Clare Polkinghorne, Alanna Kennedy and Tameka Yallop, will be on limited minutes.

“It will be a good indicator of the starting lineup but also the finishing lineup [against Ireland],” Gustavsson said.

“I’ve always talked about that – it’s also about the game-changers.

“The one thing that will be different is because it’s a send-off game and the last friendly before the World Cup, I’m also going to consider any type of niggles and minutes played – because it’s all about the Ireland game.

“If this was a quarter-final, I would probably treat game time and players differently. So you will see some adjustments according to that. So if you’re surprised that maybe a player has a phenomenal game tomorrow and I take her off at half-time, it’s going to be different, right?

“We’re also going to have that approach that we want as many players as possible to get some game minutes.”

The send-off against a top nation looms as the final part of a perfect World Cup preparation.

“There’s going to be testing some things,” Gustavsson said.

“There’s going to be throwing some curveballs out there for oppositions to deal with, come the World Cup, but then also have consistency in what we’ve done and believe in what we’ve done for years now.”