France aiming for top four

Bruno Bini has vowed to lead France to a major tournament semi-final by 2011 as he begins his reign as national women's team coach tonight in a home friendly against China.

Successful decade
Bini took over from Elisabeth Loisel earlier this month, following his predecessor's successful ten-year tenure which included reaching a first FIFA Women's World Cup in 2003. Les Bleues will sit out this year's edition after being pipped by England, prompting Loisel to step down and be replaced by the man who coached France to victory at the 2003 UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship. The 52-year-old now intends to go for glory at both UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™, for which qualifying begins later this year, and the 2011 World Cup.

Mission
"The contract is clear," Bini told the French Football Federation website. "We must go to Finland [in 2009] and to the World Cup. For one of those competitions at least, my mission is to reach the semi-finals. As for the EURO qualifiers, we want seven points from our first three games, against Greece, Slovenia and Iceland."

Blend
The charismatic newcomer's situation is not dissimilar to that of Raymond Domenech when he took the senior men's helm in 2004 following a spell in charge of underage squads. The star of recent years, Marinette Pichon, has retired, but just as Domenech was able to blend the established talents of Zinédine Zidane and Lilian Thuram with younger players such as Franck Ribéry, so Bini has seven of his 2003 U19 squad in his first selection along with Sandrine Soubeyrand and new captain Hoda Lattaf, both capped more than 100 times. Though Bini, who will be assisted by his long-time collaborator André Barthélémy and France's most-capped player, ex-defender Corinne Diacre, will not make radical changes for the sake of it.

Combination
He explained: "It's important not just to carry out a technical project but also a 'life' project. My ambition is that the staff and players are happy together." Soubeyrand added: "The squad has changed but we'll get to know each other. All the newcomers previously passed though the youth squads so there will be no problem."

Tough friendlies
Les Bleues will have the chance to bond tonight against World Cup hosts China in Merignac and then in the Algarve Cup, starting next Wednesday, when they meet Denmark, Germany and Norway in the group stage. A literary man given to quoting Paulo Coelho or invoking the poet Jean de La Fontaine's fables in his team talks, Bini chooses a marital aphorism for the tough matches prefacing the first EURO fixture against Greece on 11 April - a programme set before his appointment. "These friendlies are like the parents-in-law," he said. "They have not been chosen by me. I hope they won't annoy me too much as we play only teams qualified for the World Cup!" Not so much a wedding as a baptism of fire.