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Ready for battle
Didier Deschamps is full of admiration for Gareth Southgate — but the pleasantries will be put on hold when France collide with England tomorrow night.
All eyes will be on the clash at the Al Bayt Stadium, which is being billed as the highlight of the World Cup quarter-finals.
And Les Bleus boss Deschamps, 54, is desperate to get one over his opposite number as the reigning champions bid to advance to the final four.
He said: “I very much like Gareth. We have met and talked on a number of occasions.
“But if I understand correctly, not everyone appreciates him so much in his own country.
“That isn’t because he wasn’t a good footballer himself. He had a long, distinguished career and is also a very good coach.
“He has enabled England to get some very good results over the years and I very much like him.”
Deschamps, who is only under contract until the end of the tournament in Qatar, added: “My only priority is this match and getting through to the semi-finals.
“My players want to go further. It is a wonderful opportunity but you need to dig deep to go further.”
On the rise
Women’s Super League attendances have rocketed 200% from last year following England’s Euro 2022 success.
Kelly Simmons, director of the women’s professional game, has hailed a record-breaking first half of the season ahead of this weekend’s final round of fixtures before the winter break.
She said: “Coming into the 2022-23 season, we knew we had an extraordinary opportunity to introduce the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship to new audiences.
“The Lionesses’ victory propelled the women’s game in this country to new levels and it was important for us to capture and capitalise on that momentum.
“It has often been said that a successful women’s England team will help generate interest in the domestic game. This is certainly true and I have been really overwhelmed by the response we have seen from fans — new and old — in the first half of the season.
“I am delighted to reveal that since the season commenced, we have seen almost 300,000 spectators attend matches across the Women’s Super League. This just highlights how much appetite there is for world-class women’s league football.
“We are currently averaging almost 6,000 fans a week in the Women’s Super League as we go into the final league fixtures of 2022, which is up over 200% on this time last year.
“The Women’s Championship is also performing brilliantly, with the average attendance up over 85 per cent on this time last year.”
The highest WSL attendance was an individual club record when Arsenal and Tottenham played in front of 47,367 fans at the Emirates Stadium in September.
