Tomorrow France begin their quest for a 3rd European Championship. They face a Romanian side ranked 12th in the world, only 5 spots behind France. Some might think (or hope!) the gap is actually considerably bigger.
With no surprise results so far in the tournament, we’ll be keen to keep that trend going. 3 points vs Romania is imperative with the Italians and Dutch coming up.
Romania come into the Euros having topped their qualifying group by 3 points over the Dutch (they beat Holland 1-0 at home and drew 0-0 away). They also won their most recent friendly 4-0 over Montenegro.
Word out of the Romania camp is that they’ve identified Ribéry as the key man to stop (no kidding!). Chivu is set to man mark him.
Domenech is under real pressure to start Benzema–at Anelka’s expense. JP & I definitely feel that he’s really ready come on strong…a goal tomorrow would give him huge confidence and possibly set him up for the golden boot.
We know Vieira is out and it seems likely Doms will stick with Toulalan. Hopefully we’ll still display the dynamic kind of football we played in the 3 friendlies. I think our team has usually lost a bit of shape when Toulalan has played alongside Makelele, both sitting a bit too far back.
The other question mark is probably Malouda. While he’s continually underachieved for France, Doms has continued to stick with him, so expect that to continue tomorrow. Still, even Doms would have to be thinking seriously about replacing him. Perhaps his decision is made easier by the fact that Nasri hasn’t quite shown (yet) that he’s capable of playing at a consistently high level. Govou is also an option, though he seems to have a good presence off the bench.
Defensively, Doms will definitely stick with what’s been working, so his back four (plus Maks) will be unchanged.
Judging by Romania’s strong qualification they must be a well organized team, especially when one considers they held Holland goalless in 2 games. However, I think we all expect France to come out on top–even if we do sometime struggle vs teams of this nature (your Serbias, Slovakias, Ukraines…Romania is probably the best of that tough eastern bunch!). I’d say a goal in each half. 2-0.
Possible Starting XI
Coupet, Abidal, Thuram, Gallas, Sagnol, Makelele, Toulalan, Malouda, Ribéry, Benzema, Henry
–Stéphane F.
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i dont think same with the result, it will be a hard game for france. yeah.. we know it players are more famous than rumania, but dont let it makes you think that france can beat rumania easily. rumania is a great time, and they showed it at qualification matches. they can be win or maybe just make it draw. i think now is the great time for rumania to show their real quality in football, the have just woke up from their sleep….
ps: let’s see..
that was terrible…why did he play toulalan AND makelele? Romania were there for the taking, and he plays TWO defensive midfielders! Domench clearly has a team plan…he has realised he had to get Vieira and Makelele in the same team, and then when Vieira got injured, it seems he thought Toulalan was the one to take his place. Makelele and Nasri in the middle would have worked, it was a must win game… now it looks like a win against Holland and Italy will be needed. Also, how bad were Abidal and Sagnol!- Clichy and Sagna must have been watching, sure they could have done a much better job!
Cannot believe how badly the likes of Benzema, Anelka and Ribery looked…
Also, did anyone notice that Makelele was always having a go at Abidal, as he gave Romania the ball time, after time, after time…
Abidal was better than Sagnol. Sagnol looked poor in that last friendly as well. Ribery was absolutely owned by Rat. Benzema was playing a midfield role basically the whole game and Anelka wasn’t enough up top by himself. Which basically put everything in the hands of Malouda……Not a bad game for him but its just more of the same uninventful crap. So lets cut a DM next game and push forward more. This defensive minded game is never going to score goals.