France gets key victory over Brazil

BRISBANE, Australia — Wendie Renard was threatening to skip the Women’s World Cup and Eugénie Le Sommer wasn’t in selection contention just a few months ago under France’s previous coaching regime.

A management overhaul and a change of heart ultimately led to two of French football’s most experienced players combining for Les Bleues on Saturday to deliver a 2-1 win over Brazil that put them into a strong position to progress to the round of 16.

Le Sommer missed with a diving header in the 13th minute but needed only four more minutes to convert her next chance, beating Brazilian goalkeeper Leticia with a more emphatic header to score her record-extending 90th international goal.

Debinha equalized for Brazil as the hour approached, and the game opened up as both teams pressed for a winner. That’s when Renaud stepped in.

Renard, who’d been in doubt for the match because of a calf injury she picked up in France’s lackluster opening 0-0 draw against Jamaica, drifted unmarked to the back edge of the box to meet a corner kick with a powerful header in the 83rd and clinch victory.

It meant the well-traveled Hervé Renard, who was hired in March to replace Corinne Diacre, became the first head coach to win games at both the women’s and men’s World Cups.

His upset victory with Saudi Arabia over eventual champion Argentina was one of the highlights of the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year.

JAMAICA 1, PANAMA 0: Defender Allyson Swaby scored in the 56th minute and Jamaica hung on to edge Panama in Perth, Australia, for its first-ever win at the Women’s World Cup.

Swaby, who grew up in West Hartford, Conn., and played for Boston College, knocked in a header off Trudi Carter’s corner kick to clinch a win that moved the Jamaicans into a surprising share of the top spot in Group F with France.

The Reggae Girlz were without captain and leading scorer Khadija Shaw, who received a red card in second-half stoppage time during the team’s opening 0-0 draw against France.

SWEDEN 5, ITALY 0: After leaving it to the last minute against South Africa, Sweden left nothing to chance against Italy in a victory in Wellington, New Zealand, which sealed its place in the knockout rounds.

Sweden relied on Amanda Ilestedt’s 90th-minute winner to salvage a 2-1 win from a sub-par performance in its opener against South Africa.

Ilestedt was Sweden’s first scorer Saturday, this time in the 39th, and her glancing header from a corner sparked a flood of four Swedish goals in 11 minutes on either side of halftime.