France V Switzerland

bohsman

Havent seen France play in a couple of years, on paper look a lot stronger than Switzerland.

county

i can see a draw in this one,the french team should be playing in the masters,bringing back so many old and retired players,they are desperate

Ponster

I'm expecting a good 'ol French 0-0 draw today.

The French are quietly expecting their team to win today but the atmosphere is nothing like in Japan when they presumed that a win over Senegal was theirs to take. It's much more "Let's wait and see" in the papers and therefore more relaxed and less hyped which IMHO is a good thing.

Since Euro '04 France have had a hard time getting into WC '08 having to recall retired players and their recent friendlies have been terrible so if they win it won't matter how it happens the public will be happy.

I'd expect Makelele and Ribéry to control the game but it'll be down to Henry's form if they pull it off or not.

mike65

Draw, France are no great shakes at all while the Swiss are better than their make-weight status suggests.

Mike.

Anam

France 2-0 for me,they've a quality defence protected by Makelele,and they have got pace in attack in Henry and Ribery,i dont agree with what has been said about France bringing back old and retired players,Makelele is the best defensive midfielder in the world and for 7 games Zidane can still be one of the best players in the tournament.My only concern about them is their manager

If Henry is on form i expect them to go far.

PHB

France have a terrible terrible manager, but they have Zidane and Henry (which the Switz defense won't be able to cope with), not to mention Makelele, Vieira and Gallas, who are all world class players.

Ponster

PHB wrote:

France have a terrible terrible manager, but they have Zidane and Henry (which the Switz defense won't be able to cope with)...

I'm pretty sure that they have coped with him twice in the past 2 years which is more than we managed.

jimbling

any teams yet??

cruiserweight

France: Barthez, Abidal, Gallas, Thuram, Sagnol, Zidane, Makelele, Vieira, Ribery, Wiltord, Henry. Subs: Boumsong, Chimbonda, Coupet, Dhorasoo, Diarra, Givet, Govou, Landreau, Malouda, Saha, Silvestre, Trezeguet.

Switzerland: Zuberbuhler, Magnin, Senderos, Muller, Philipp Degen, Cabanas, Vogel, Wicky, Barnetta, Frei, Streller. Subs: Behrami, Benaglio, Coltorti, David Degen, Djourou, Dzemaili, Grichting, Gygax, Lustrinelli, Margairaz, Spycher, Yakin.

Referee: Valentin Ivanov (Russia).

jimbling

interesting line up... so france are going with the 4-2-3-1 formation. i reckon it'll be a close thing... but france should have the beating of them.

RuggieBear

i reckon 1 nil to the swiss

Pighead

3-1 to the Frenchies. Henry with 2 and Thuram with a 6 yard toe poke from a Zidane free kick. Unfortunately for the French defense I have Frei getting a consolation with a decent placed effort from just inside the box.

RE*AC*TOR

ireland should be playing

they owe us a good match.

MrJoeSoap

I expect Ribery and Barnetta to shine.

MrJoeSoap

Penalty? Hands were certainly spread, very John Terry-esque.

Pighead

Yeah I thought it was a penalty alright. As did Lineker,O Neill, Desailly, Brady,Souness and Cunningham. Basically everybody except Mick McCarthy. I used to think he was alright as a commentator but hes beginning to annoy me with his wrongness and cheap gags.

I can see the French dressing room now:

Domenach:Oi Ribery you're having le stinker, I'm taking you off you stink like ze garlic. Guily go out and warm up you're playing the second half. Giuly?Giuly? Ah sacre fcuking bleu.Zut! Je suis stupid idiot!

MrJoeSoap

Great save by Barthez to keep out Gygax, best chance of the game.

MrJoeSoap

What an absolutely dire game. Both sides doing their best to lower the 2.5 goals per game average so far. Only person who I'd have anything good to say about is Senderos, and even he gifted France their best opportunity.

KdjaCL

me needs a draw to win me some money, had 0-0 written all over it from last year but that shall change now i have posted



kdjac

Töpher

Wanted to put money on an accumulator for South Korea and Brazil to win, and France/Swiss to draw, but couldn't get out of work!! Bah!

Ah sure, "the pussy World Cup" just made my night!

Ponster

KdjaC wrote:

me needs a draw to win me some money, had 0-0 written all over it from last year but that shall change now i have posted



kdjac

Hope not. I stand to win a tidy sum should it finish 0-0

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

That last minute strike must have you needing new trousers...!!

Ponster

I almost stood on the damn cat. Free kick now...

Ponster

Almost a "Hand of God" moment there....

KdjaCL

cool back to winning ways after my extravagant bet on togo to win

Crap game nothing of note happened.





kdjac

Anam

Ref was dire,i thought Henry was a let down,he looked as though he lacked confidence or something.

Zidane looked sharp and France should have had a penalty but they should still make it out of the group easily.

mad m

Thank god its over!!! Roll on Brazil later

MrJoeSoap

Last time France scored in a World Cup...?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Petit in the final in Paris...? Did the score at all last time round?

gimmick

^ Lol, amazingly, Emmanuel Petit in injury time of the 98 World Cup Final :eek:

They failed to score in all 3 games last time round.

eirebhoy

Anam wrote:

Ref was dire,i thought Henry was a let down,he looked as though he lacked confidence or something.

That's the Thierry Henry of France. Seriously, he is not the same player for France as he is for Arsenal.

As was said already, this had draw written all over it.

Chucky the tree

Knowing my luck with World cup betting so far Brazil will end up drawing.

mike65

South Korea and Switzerland to qualify?

Mike

galwaydude

france were woefull today.

vorbis

some f*** up by frei, there was a swiss guy right behind him waiting for the ball! What a mistake!!

Little-Devil

I watched game and thought the Swiss were un-lucky not to snatch the win. I dont about france's midfield though, for me Makelele and Vieria are to simlar. I think they coud prob do with a more attacking midfielder in the middle, but who do you leave out between the 2 of them for me it would have to be vieria. I dont think france will the cup though, zidane played and ribery looked decent at times, but gave the ball away a bit. I think that was down to have no support at times........

eirebhoy

Little-Devil wrote:

I watched game and thought the Swiss were un-lucky not to snatch the win. I dont about france's midfield though, for me Makelele and Vieria are to simlar.

I don't think so. The only time Vieira played the holding role for Arsenal was when they are stuck. He'd usually always have Gilberto or Edu in beside him. Same goes for Juve with Emerson. He just needs to dominate midfield more.

Pepe LeFrits

vorbis wrote:

some f*** up by frei, there was a swiss guy right behind him waiting for the ball! What a mistake!!

That was 19 year old Johan Djourou. I am absolutely gutted for the guy, that would probably have been his greatest ever international moment. Frei is a, well, I can't really say here... he's a thoroughly unlikeable person anyway.

Domenech has to be the worst manager at the World Cup. He makes England look lucky to have Sven. (For all their talk of 'now or never' etc, I think France still have a better pool of talent than England and yet continually manage to do worse). Why in the name of god did BOTH Vieira and Makelele play the entire 90? I don't think Makelele joined an attack the entire game, and while I'm pretty sure Vieira did, I can't remember any examples. (He looks finished incidently, Juventus must be absolutely sick at the prospect of paying him his massive wages for another 4 years). Sagnol and Abidal were glued to Thuram and Gallas for most of the game, which left Zidane, Wiltord, Ribery and Henry to try and score on their own - 4vs9 (two banks of 4 and a keeper) - not very good odds I don't think, especially the 4 look like they've never played together before.

It's generally a bad sign when I go into a game supporting one team and finish it supporting the other, especially when the team I originally wanted to win has one of my favourite ever players spear-heading their attack. France were abysmal, they showed absolutely no desire to win. On the basis of that showing, I won't be sorry if they repeat their 2002 result.

Pigman II

Ponster wrote:

Almost a "Hand of God" moment there....

more like hand of tw..... oh never mind.

okidoki987

Was listening to it on the radio (thankfully) on Five Live and the commentator said he's never seen a worse match at the World Cup.
Let's hope France get the finger out, I have them in a sweep in work
with 800 yoyo's for the winner

Pigman II

okidoki987 wrote:

Was listening to it on the radio (thankfully) on Five Live and the commentator said he's never seen a worse match at the World Cup.

He should watch more matches then. Hell, we had 3 worse than that in WC90 alone.

samb

I think it was a bad game to watch mainly because of the defisive tight way the swiss played. Good draw from their point of view but Henry will get more ball against the other teams in the group and also against better teams. Against Brazil, Argentina, England, I think Henry could get goals. Italians could be a problem.

redspider

I didnt watch all of this game, how could anyone really. It was poor as a spectacle. France didnt oplay with enough urgency or creativity or skill. The Swis did their job and the few chances France had they missed them woefully. On this performance, the French will make the top 8 but wont win the WC, thats for sure.

Still, one Swallow does not a summer make, as the saying goes, so we will have to wait and see and reserve judgement on all the big teams until they have completed their 2nd games. The 1st games are not necesarily the trend setters for the tournamet, and indeed many hold the opinion that the tournament, like the CL, only really gets going at the business end knock-out stages from the last 16 onwards.

France dropped two points, but should still qualify first out of their group, if they apply their quality.

redspider