Before the Matilda’s kick off their first match of the FIFA Women’s World Cup next week against Ireland, the Matilda’s are set to take on France in a preliminary match which will be live on 10 Bold, 10 Play and Paramount+ kicking off at 7:30 pm AEST.
The game which will be played at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne will see close to 50,000 fans pack out the stadium, which sets a new home crowd record for the Australian senior women’s national football team, beating out the previous best of 36,109 in 2021 when the Matildas hosted the USA team in Sydney.
Matilda’s head coach Tony Gustavsson talked in the pre-match press conference about how fans would probably not see Kyah Simon in the game and stars such as Clare Polkinghorne, Alanna Kennedy and Tameka Yallop will be on limited minutes.
He also talked about the squad rotation for the match before the start of the tournament.
“It will be a good indicator of the starting lineup but also the finishing lineup against Ireland,” Gustavsson said.
“She’s still not ready to play many minutes but we’re working on an individual plan for her and we selected her as a game-changer,” Gustavsson said on Simon’s absence from training with the team at Marvel Stadium.
“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,” he explained.
Matildas – Final Squad – FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023
1. Lydia Williams
2. Courtney Nevin
3. Aivi Luik
4. Clare Polkinghorne
5. Cortnee Vine
6. Clare Wheeler
7. Steph Catley
8. Alex Chidiac
9. Caitlin Foord
10. Emily Van Egmond
11. Mary Fowler
12. Teagan Micah
13. Tameka Yallop
14. Alanna Kennedy
15. Clare Hunt
16. Hayley Raso
17. Kyah Simon
18. Mackenzie Arnold
19. Katrina Gorry
20. Sam Kerr
21. Ellie Carpenter
22. Charlotte Grant
23. Kyra Cooney-Cross
The Matildas V France match kicks off at 7:30 pm AEST on 10 Bold and 10 Play.
See also: Snapchat to host FIFA Women’s World Cup highlights after partnership with Optus Sport