France Women vs. Colombia Women – prediction, team news, lineups

France Women will kick off their Olympic campaign when they face Colombia Women at the Groupama Stadium on Thursday.

Over the next three matchdays, the two nations will battle with Canada and New Zealand for a place in the quarter-finals.

Match preview

Having qualified as hosts, France are set to return to the Olympic stage for the first time since reaching the last eight in 2016.

Four years prior to that competition, Les Bleues made their Olympic debut at the London games, reaching the semi-finals before losing 2-1 to Japan and then suffering a narrow defeat to Canada in the bronze medal match.

In the last couple of years, France have experienced a semi-final exit at Euro 2022 and fell at the quarter-final stage of the 2023 World Cup, leaving them waiting for their first major honour in women’s football.

Herve Renard, who was appointed in March 2023, will hope to lead France to glory at their home Olympics before he leaves his position when his contract expires after the tournament.

Renard recently saw his side secure qualification for Euro 2025, collecting 12 points from six games to finish above England, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.

However, after suffering a surprise defeat to Ireland in their final qualifier, France will be determined to return to winning ways in their Olympic opener against Colombia.

While France will be the favourites, Colombia demonstrated at last year’s World Cup that they possess enough quality to trouble the best teams in the world.

They beat South Korea 2-0 and stunned Germany 2-1 to advance to the quarter-finals despite losing to Morocco in their final group game.

Colombia went on to edge out Jamaica in the last 16 before their memorable journey was ended by a narrow 2-1 defeat to eventual finalists England.

They now get the chance to compete in another major competition after they qualified for the Olympics via their appearance in the 2022 Copa America final.

Having failed to make it out of the group at their previous two Olympics, Colombia will be targeting their first knockout-round appearance, which they could secure via a top-two finish or with one of the two best third-place spots.

France Women form (all competitions): WWLWWL

Colombia Women form (all competitions): WWWWLD

France Women vs. Colombia Women odds

If we look at the compiled odds from different bookmakers, it is clear that the French national team are the expected winners and it's not even close since the implied probability of France winning is 77.80%.

France Women Odds: 2/7 – 77.80% probability

Draw Odds: 5/1 – 16.70% probability

Colombia Women Odds: 19/2 – 10.50% probability

However, if you want to back France to win after also leading at half-time, you'll get a much better price of 4/5, which still comes with a 55.60% probability.

When it comes to goals, over 2.5 total goals has odds of just 11/20 (64.50% probability), while under 2.5 total goals is priced at 13/8, which implies a 38.10% probability.

Meanwhile, both teams to score has odds of 21/20 and 48.80% probability, which means that the bookies lean towards the other option, i.e. at least one team failing to score. However, it would probably make more sense to bet on France to win-to-nil (5/4 odds and 44.40% probability) if you don't expect a team to score, since Colombia failing to score is much more likely.

Team News

Due to the small 18-player squads, Renard has had to place Solene Durand, Eve Perisset, Lea Le Garrec and Vicki Becho on France’s reserve list despite the fact the quartet were part of the group for the recent Euro 2025 qualifiers.

The Olympic hosts are likely to line up with a back four of Elisa De Almeida, Griedge Mbock, Wendie Renard and Sakina Karchaoui.

At the opposite end of the pitch, Marie-Antoinette Katoto is expected to be flanked by Kadidiatou Diani and Kenza Dali.

As for Colombia, goalkeeper Catalina Perez could be shielded by a backline made up of Carolina Arias, Angela Baron, Jorelyn Carabali and Manuela Vanegas.

Real Madrid’s Linda Caicedo will be hoping to enjoy another productive tournament after scoring two goals and providing one assist at the 2023 World Cup.

The 19-year-old attacker is likely to feature in a front three alongside Pachuca’s Catalina Usme and Chelsea’s Mayra Ramirez.

France Women possible starting lineup: Peyraud-Magnin; De Almeida, Mbock, Renard, Karchaoui; Henry, Geyoro, Bacha; Diani, Dali, Katoto

Colombia Women possible starting lineup: Perez; C Arias, Baron, Carabali, Vanegas; Santos, Montoya, Restrepo; Usme, Caicedo, Ramirez

We say: France Women 2-0 Colombia Women

France will be motivated to produce a strong performance in front of their home crowd, and we ultimately think they will have the extra quality required to begin their Olympic campaign with a relatively comfortable victory.