In unique fashion, the French entering contest with guile (11)

'in unique fashion the french entering contest with guile' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'the french entering contest with guile' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'contest' could be 'match' (match is a kind of contest) and 'match' is found within the answer.
'the french' could be 'les' (les is the in french) and 'les' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'sly' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?