Following their historic goalless draw against fifth-ranked France on Sunday, Jamaica’s senior women’s football team assistant coach Xavier Gilbert says it is not yet time to celebrate because players must focus on the bigger picture, which is the possibility of progressing beyond the group stages.

After three defeats in the group stages in their historic Fifa Women’s World Cup debut in France in 2019, the Reggae Girlz hoped to earn their first-ever point at the global showpiece on this occasion, and they did, delighting a crowd of nearly 40,000 at Sydney Football Stadium in Australia.

“I believe we did well. We had a game plan against France, and the players executed it well enough to earn us a point in an atmosphere that felt almost like Jamaica’s National Stadium,” Gilbert explained.

“The crowd was really behind us and supported us, and for that, we are happy, even more so, to get a point on the board, but it’s on to the next game,” he continued.

Gilbert stated that earning the point versus Francis is significant and rates high on the list of the country’s achievements for male or female teams.

“Most importantly, it puts us in good stead for the remainder of the tournament, and the players are aware of that. So, despite basking in their accomplishment, they remain focused on the task at hand and are aware of the level of effort required to obtain it,” Gilbert explained.

The Jamaicans are tied for second place in Group F with France, with Brazil now leading with three points after thrashing Panama 4-0 on Monday.

The Jamaicans, according to Gilbert, will be looking to demonstrate their dominance against Concacaf rivals Panama, who are rated 52nd.

“As a result, we’re preparing for the next game in the same manner because we don’t underestimate any team.” So as soon as we got the Girlz back, it was back to work since we had a lot of work to do come Saturday,” Gilbert explained.

“I’m sure the other teams will start to respect us now; we had objectives that we wanted to achieve, so the strength of the first game performance would have increased the confidence level in the girls’ ability and what they can achieve in the tournament.

“But we haven’t won anything yet, so obviously there’s a lot of expectations, but we still feel like the underdogs, and we still have a lot of work to do as we continue to build towards a sustainable and competitive women’s football.”