Familiar foe Renard leads Saudis against Socceroos

Wednesday at 08:20 AM

There have been a few more familiar foes in Australian football in recent times than Herve Renard.

And now the Saudi Arabia coach, who is currently locked in a personal 1-1 battle with Australia, wants to take the lead.

The Frenchman known for his exuberance and tight white collared shirts has taken on both the Socceroos and the Matildas over the past three years.

As Saudi boss, Renard captivated the football world with a passionate half-time speech in the extraordinary 2-1 group-stage win over eventual champions Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.

Renard, in his famous attire, initially coached against the Socceroos in the 2022 qualification cycle, earning a home 1-0 win and away 0-0 draw to claim a direct spot to Qatar.

After the Matildas beat a Renard-led France at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the charismatic manager jokingly promised to seek revenge at this year’s Paris Olympics.

That rematch never arrived.

But he will get to lock horns with another group of Australians at AAMI Park on Thursday night.

“Yeah, we can say the score is 1-1,” Renard said with a smile.

“Because we finished in front of you, we qualified for the World Cup 2022.

“You beat us with France in the penalty shoot out.

“This is football. It was a tough game, we scored, the goal was not allowed and we finished very far in the night.

“But it was a fantastic World Cup. Congratulations to you because we just left quickly after the game, but the World Cup was amazing.

“Tomorrow, it’s another context, also for the World Cup qualifiers. So this is very important in our career.”

Renard was also, briefly, among the contenders to replace Graham Arnold.

He noted he was already under contract with the Saudis when FA started looking for Arnold’s replacement, but confirmed he had been on the organisation’s shortlist.

Renard was officially named Roberto Mancini’s replacement late last month, charged with turning Saudi Arabia’s campaign around.

Socceroos coach Tony Popovic, in his first meeting with Renard, is ready.

“It’s a change. He obviously has a lot of experience with the team. He had them for four years, did a very good job with them, fantastic at the World Cup, as we know,” Popovic said.

“He had the (French) Olympic team, the women. So we monitored what he did in both jobs that he had, and we expect them to bring that energy and enthusiasm, which comes about from playing for a big country.

“So we expect that tomorrow night, a very energetic, determined, maybe desperate, to get a result.”

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