France team announced!

eirebhoy

---

Barthez

---

Gallas--Givet--Squillachi--Silvestre

Wiltord--Mavuba--Dacourt--Pires

---

Henry---Cisse

---

Thats a tough defence to beat. They all play centre half on a regular basis. No Evra means Domenech is playing safe. Midfield and attack is pretty much as expected.

KdjaCL

not a bad team gallas vs Duff should be the key.

kdjac

eirebhoy

KdjaC wrote:

not a bad team gallas vs Duff should be the key.

kdjac

I should have mentioned, those are the players that will play but I just predicted the formation. Gallas could play at centre half but then who plays at right back? I'd say it will be Gallas at right back as I'm sure, as you say, Domenech has Duff in mind.

Töpher

Won't be easy, but it's do-able!

thejollyrodger

solid enough team. Lots of talent there and if they play with any sort of heart they can cause us lots of problems.

I'm hoping Cisse and Henry dont gell and play like a team. Other wise they will carve us up at the back.

No real surprises in the centre and solid enough at the back.

1 point please Kerr .

GuanYin

Einst&#252 wrote: »

Won't be easy, but it's do-able!

Very do-able, I'm pretty happy at the prospect of silvestre. He's the weak link in the Utd defence and his partnership with Ferdinand flatters him somewhat.

Stopping Pires and Henry is the issues. Carr and Cunningham will have to be in top gear.

Bungalow Bill

I'm worried about Kenny Cunningham defending against France. When it comes to easy passes and heading the ball under very little pressure he's freakin pelé, but he can often get caught for pace against guys like Henry or Wiltord, i hope Keano will be our Captain.

Draupnir

Might be a good nite for Andy Reid or even better, I wouldnt be surprised, if Duff plays down the right to try and mess with the French heads.

Hopefully Silvestre and Barthez can combine, like they did at Utd, and cost the French a goal.

I think we shade it in midfield, they have the better strike force and the defences are pretty even.

As Ive said all along, I reckon 1-1

Pigman II

eirebhoy wrote:

I should have mentioned, those are the players that will play but I just predicted the formation. Gallas could play at centre half but then who plays at right back? I'd say it will be Gallas at right back as I'm sure, as you say, Domenech has Duff in mind.

Didn't Schillachi play centreback (vs Israel) last month?

GuanYin

Bungalow Bill wrote:

I'm worried about Kenny Cunningham defending against France. When it comes to easy passes and heading the ball under very little pressure he's freakin pelé, but he can often get caught for pace against guys like Henry or Wiltord, i hope Keano will be our Captain.

I dunno about that, last time they met Cunningham had Henry in his pocket.

thejollyrodger

I hope to see an irish side full of disicpline, hunger, swtiched on, and really going for it from the start. Hopefully the team will start attacking and defending as a team. Now would be an appropriate time for Robbie and Clinton to start showing more understanding what each other is trying to do. JOSH, if he starts, should keep it simply and just boot the ball long. Carr has to bring the ball forward and helping out. I hope Cunningham stays back and doesnt get caught out.

Looking at the French side, if they do all that and remain alert for the full 90 minutes I think Ireland can get a draw or maybe even snatch a win in the last 20 minutes.

smemon

an average side with a good attack. defence is brutel, their asking to concede goals imo.

midifeld is weak, no work rate there pires, wiltord and dacourt are showboaters and wimps who dont like a tough tackle. up until attack, we win hands down, no doubt about that, our defence is superior, midfield is completely dominant but our attack doesnt match theres.

if we can keep henry quiet a win is on the cards.

Dewey

I dont think the french midfeild is very strong, and with Keano and maybe Kav in the middle i think we can win the midfeild battle. I dont know what to make of Henry and Cisse up front. I dont know if they are going to work well together.
35,000 irish fans are going to be there and i hope Ireland puts on a display to be proud of.....win,lose or draw.

Duff is match fit again as is Robbie so i would expect big things from those two on Saturday. I expect it to be tight but i would be hugely disappointed if we didnt come away with somethnig.

Nuttzz

As a liverpool fan I am delighted to see Cisse play.... he's muck at the moment

eirebhoy

Pigman II wrote:

Didn't Schillachi play centreback (vs Israel) last month?

Yep and according to RTE news he'll play in the centre on Saturday, Silvestre will play left back.

Smemon wrote:

our defence is superior, midfield is completely dominant

Our defence is not superior. Silvestre is a better left back than O'Shea. Gallas is just as good as Carr, at least. Squillachi and Givet play together week in week out for the CL finalists Monaco. Just look at the players the manager left out and it'll show how good their defense is, Evra, Boumsong and Mexes would all get into our team and 2 of them can't even make the French squad.

Our midfield is slightly better but I wouldn't go as far as using the word dominant.

smemon

eirebhoy wrote:

Our defence is not superior. Silvestre is a better left back than O'Shea. Gallas is just as good as Carr, at least. Squillachi and Givet play together week in week out for the CL finalists Monaco. Just look at the players the manager left out and it'll show how good their defense is, Evra, Boumsong and Mexes would all get into our team and 2 of them can't even make the French squad.

Our midfield is slightly better but I wouldn't go as far as using the word dominant.

i disagree, all of these young 'stars' are hyped up and deliver the goods for one or 2 big games, then fail to produce after that. robben, mexes, cisse etc... those guys you hear raving reviews about and seem to look good the 2 or 3 times you see them but then fail to impress week in week out.

tbh, evra, boumsong and mexes dont striker fear into me and im sure they dont to too many attackers either. more and more i hear about young superstars and when i see them for a while i wonder what all the fuss is about. reyes, ronaldo etc are exceptions.

france are not the side of '98 or '02, they are not the best in europe either and certainly not the world. we're on a level par with france at the minute imo, dont fool ourselves they have every bit of weakness as we do and their last few matches have proved that.

if we go ahead, by god we better keep attacking. ireland have to learn you cant sit back and counter attack once you have a lead. theres nothing worse than being 1-0 up and the opposition camping in around your penalty area.

Ronan

I thought Givet and Squillachi were more naturally fullbacks and that Silvestre and Gallas would be the centre backs ? but then again it wouldn't suprise me if Silvestre was at left back and Squillachi was at the centre.

Villain

We should be able to get a point against that team, unless Henry does something special.

sharkman

Nuttzz wrote:

As a liverpool fan I am delighted to see Cisse play.... he's muck at the moment

I was just thinking that , If he is on current form we have nothing to worry from him .

I puttin my money on a 1-1 draw , BUT heres hopin for 2-1 , With the amount of support we have travelling to this one to cheer the boys on , You never know .

eirebhoy

Ronan wrote:

I thought Givet and Squillachi were more naturally fullbacks and that Silvestre and Gallas would be the centre backs ? but then again it wouldn't suprise me if Silvestre was at left back and Squillachi was at the centre.

Since Domemech took over he has been playing a 5-3-2 or 3-5-2 so the only two players that ever partnered each other in a 4-4-2 are Squillachi and Givet (at club level). Also, Gallas would probably know Duff inside out so he was more or less certain to play at RB.

Ronan

Makes sense. But I thought the 2 Monaco boys are usually fullbacks, could work to our advantage if they do play in the centre.

GuanYin

Haha Wiltord doesn't rate us:

'We are going to win. Look at the players we have here. We don't have to get worried,' he said.

'We are going to take these six points and open up a new chapter of the team.'

I understand confidence but at least Pires is cautious about saying we're a walkover, I hope we can put in a better performance than Switzerland and get something from Paris.

Big Ears

an average side with a good attack. defence is brutel, their asking to concede goals imo.

midifeld is weak, no work rate there pires, wiltord and dacourt are showboaters and wimps who dont like a tough tackle. up until attack, we win hands down, no doubt about that, our defence is superior, midfield is completely dominant but our attack doesnt match theres.

if we can keep henry quiet a win is on the cards.

Note: traces of this reading may have been copied from Smemmon .

my prediction: 2-0 Ireland , with a huge amount of nervy moments .

beer enigma

And at 6-1 for an Ireland win with Paddy Power, that's gotta be worth a few quid !

Personally I'm a Brit AND a Gunners fan, but still routing for the greens (or should that be le verts !) - It's gonna be a cracking game.

eirebhoy

Big Ears wrote:

defence is brutel, their asking to concede goals imo.

Its better than ours which is all that matters. If anything, that is the best defence to put out if they're playing safe and not conceding is the main priority. We (well most of us) don't know a lot about Squillachi and Givet but they are Champions league finalists and have got into central defence ahead of Mexes, Boumsong, Sivestre and Gallas to name a few. Both full backs are as good, if not better than ours too.