Crowd favorite France advances to face Germany

MONTREAL — The French- speaking and France- favoring crowd sang “La Marseillaise” three times during Sunday’s game against South Korea.

One for each goal scored by “Les Bleues.”

“Hearing them encourages us,” midfielder Amandine Henry said after France beat South Korea, 3- 0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup. “That really motivates us in the f ield when we hear our national anthem.”

Marie Laure Delie scored twice — the f irst just four minutes into the game, when the strains of the national anthem had barely faded. France, which is third in the FIFA rankings, will play topranked Germany on Friday in Montreal for a spot in the semifinals.

“Germany is a great nation; their ranking shows it,” Henry said. “We’re not afraid of them. We’re going to prepare properly and we’ll see what’s going to happen.”