Wales centurion-to-be Helen Ward has urged her side to have no fear when they come up against top seeds France in a crucial 2023 World Cup qualifier on Friday night (7.45pm kick-off).
Gemma Grainger's Wales side play the third best side in the world at Parc y Scarlets in front of what is set to be a record attendance for a women's international in Llanelli as they enter the business end of their qualification campaign. Wales are bidding to qualify for their first major tournament, and resume international duty five points behind unbeaten group leaders France and two ahead of Slovenia in the race for second spot and a play-off place.
Ward is set to join Jess Fishlock, Loren Dykes and Sophie Ingle as Welsh centurions in Friday's fixture, while Chris Gunter, Gareth Bale and Wayne Hennessey have reached the three-figure milestone in the men's game. The 35-year-old striker is urging her team to repeat their strong defensive performance against France in November and learn from their lapses in concentration which saw France score both of their goals at the end of each half. Fishlock almost levelled at the death but Kayleigh Green's sending off made an equaliser seem a step too far.
Regardless of the defeat last time out, Wales will set up to try and nullify France's attacking threats and show their own fluidity in attack which has seen them score 17 goals so far in the qualifying campaign.
"We don't need to change much and it's just fine margins and little tweaks we need to make if we are to get a result," Ward, Wales' record goal-scorer, said. "I think our second-half performance against France showed how good we can be with the ball when we are braver in possession and I think If we can do that from the start then we will cause France problems.
"However, we can't be naïve enough to think we are going to dominate possession from start to finish as they're a world-class side so will approach the game the same with a few tweaks and it's about whether we can perform our best on the night."
A record attendance for a Wales Women's football international in Llanelli is expected, with the existing record of 5,500 fans having been set against Estonia at Cardiff City Stadium last year. Ward has urged fans to make plenty of noise, saying: "Knowing you have that Red Wall behind you means everything to us and hearing the noise from the crowd will motivate us even further to achieve a positive result."
Versatile Welsh and Reading star Natasha Harding, who is two matches away from joining the 100 club, described the defeat in Brittany as "more disappointment than heartbreak", saying: "Before we probably would have been happy with that sort of damage limitation, but for us now on Friday we want to push more and learn from the previous game, although to almost go 1-1 if it wasn't for the width of a post, to then eight seconds later to go 2-0 down, shows us the beauty of the game and why we love football."
The winners of the nine qualifying groups automatically qualify for the 2023 World Cup while group runners-up take part in play-ffs in October 2022. While a defeat on Friday wouldn't be imminently catastrophic to Wales' play-off hopes, a win or a draw would set them well on their way to a play-off place.
Wales will only have three qualifiers left after the game, and face Kazakhstan away on Tuesday, April 12. The qualifying campaign concludes in September 2022 with an away trip to Greece before a potentially mouth-watering clash against Slovenia at home.
