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France Win World Cup Qualifier Away to Lithuania 1-0, Sweet Strike from Ribery

March 28th, 2009 | By: jeff | 12 Comments »

It wasn’t a match that will linger in the memory, but France certainly controlled the game in Lithuania, and a sweet strike from Ribery was enough for three precious points.

That result leaves France 3rd in World Cup Qualifying Group 7.

Luyindula, who was a very late call up, started on the right. France played it’s typical 4-2-3-1 formation, with Henry up front (and wearing the captain’s armband).

Lithuania, ahead of France in Group 7 and playing at home, could hardly get a touch. The only time I remember them coming anywhere near to creating something was when France (Toulalan and Squillaci) gave away free kicks fairly close to the box.

France, meanwhile, had no cutting edge. They created some chances, but the strikes were right at the keeper. Lithuania were defending deep and keeping things tight, and the game was being played at a slow pace.

France finally got the space to score when Lithuania won the ball and started to head upfield, and Diarra immediately made a really nice interception, with the ball still in France’s half. Lithuania were suddenly vulnerable, and Gourcuff, receiving the ball from Diarra, did really well to pick out Ribery whose only touch was a really sweet strike from around the edge of the box.

It didn’t open up very much after the goal. France had a few more chances, and Lithuania could never get into the game.

Performances

In the sequence that led to the goal, Diarra, Gourcuff, and Ribery distinguished themselves. Before that, I didn’t think Diarra was having a great game. He wasn’t involved a lot, and most of his passes were to the side and back.

I thought Ribery and Henry looked like France’s best players, the most likely pair to get a breakthrough. Toulalan and Gourcuff were playing pretty well too. Toulalan was heavily involved. Luyindula is definitely a decent player, but he didn’t make a big contribution. He was through on goal at one point, but had a bad touch, and the chance was gone.

I prefer to see Henry wide left, with Gourcuff and Ribery to his right, and someone like Benzema or Anelka up front. I’m a huge fan of that approach.

Today, however, even when Benzema came on, Henry stayed up front, and Benzema played wide right. I, for one, didn’t get the impression that it’s Benzema’s favorite position. He did get in a scoring position at one point, but his strike went all wrong.

Nasri came on for Gourcuff, and he had a good chance to score, but hit it right at the keeper. Since Domenech was insistent on using Henry up front, I’m surprised that he didn’t use Nasri in attacking midfield from the start, in place of Luyindula.

Evra looked good. His crossing is better than Clichy’s. Clichy can do some incredible things, he has this fantastic trick he does where he comes out of nowhere to intercept a pass. He does it all the time and it’s amazing, but his crossing is often poor. Evra is a steady left back, and he adds menace to the offense.

Sagna is a very reliable right back. I watch all the Arsenal games, and I’m a big fan of Sagna. He plays for France just like he plays for Arsenal: steady at the back, comes forward a lot, but rarely to the point that he has a hand in a goal. He sends in a lot crosses, and they look decent; he usually keeps them away from the keeper, but they never seem to come to anything.

With Evra’s crosses, there’s more of a feeling of intent: he’s trying to pick someone out, whereas Sagna’s crosses feel like he’s just throwing it into the mixer. Sagna’s approach should come to something from time to time. According to the law of averages, he’s due for a run of assists.

Squillaci, Gallas, and Mandanda had very little to do. On one of Lithuania’s free kicks, Mandanda just barely did enough to punch it clear, it wasn’t necessarily convincing, but he did get it clear, and he kept a clean sheet.

Has anyone here been following the career of Squillaci? He’s still a bit of an unknown to me. I thought he looked decent today. I’d be thrilled to have him cement a place in the side and do well. I’ve read a lot of comments on this site about how Mexes should be first choice, along with Gallas. I really don’t know. I’ve seen a lot more of Mexes than Squillaci, and I’ve seen that Mexes can be error-prone, and error-prone central defenders are a pet peeve of mine. Maybe I just happen to watch when Mexes is having a rare bad game (I still haven’t recovered from his horror show in the 3-1 loss to Austria). I also consider Abidal and Boumsong error-prone (in Boumsong’s case that’s putting it lightly), but I don’t know enough about Squillaci to say.

Next up for France is Lithuania again, at home on Wednesday. Another 3 points, and France will move ahead of Lithuania in the table.

Update: I just read the comments to the previous post, from during the match, and it reminded me that the state of the pitch was atrocious, which didn’t necessarily help France, but they adjusted to that, I think, by playing short, careful passes.

It looks like not everyone who wanted to watch the match was able to. We subscribe to TV5, a French channel that costs about $10/month, and it had the game. Having TV5 is far from a guarantee that you’ll get all the France games, it’s an absolute crapshoot as far as I can tell. However, TV5 will also the match on Wednesday. Between Setanta and TV5, I’m able to see most of France’s games. I also have Fox Soccer Channel, but it rarely has France games.

Watching the goal again, I realize that I had forgotten Ribery’s celebration. I’m not good at staying on top of who likes whom, but I do get the impression that people really like Alain Boghossian, who is a former France player and now an assistant coach. There was a camera set up to watch Domenech, and Boghossian was a few feet away in the background, so when Ribery and the rest of the team went to celebrate with Boghossian, the images made Domenech look left out. It was a curious picture.

Lastly, if you’re interested in reading more fan perspective on our beloved L’Equipe de France, check out Guy’s blog: The Bean Town Frog. Guy usually lets us know in the comments when there’s a new post, which is much appreciated.

Tags: Euro 2008

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Comments

By Aditya | March 29th, 2009 at 4:01 am

Nice review. Henry disagrees with you on Luyindula’s performance: http://www.ligue1.com/selections/EquipeFrance/lireArticle.asp?idArticle=12753

From what I have seen of Mexes, he is a solid defender at the back. He hasn’t had the best of games with France though. But I still think that he should be given more chances to shine. Once he gains confidence he can be useful. I like Squillaci as well. He does his job well and is a calm defender and should be called more often than Boumsong.

With Domenech on the bench France is sweating to win against the likes of Lithuania. France needs a huge win soon to improve atmosphere and confidence.

By Doumé | March 29th, 2009 at 5:31 am

I think, a positive side to it is that there were quite a bit a opportunities against a defense that plays quickly, and in numbers.
3 points, let’s take that. I’m certainly not one of those who would accept a loss for the sake of having Domenech’s head.
For those who missed it, here’s the goal from TiFranck:
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/france+lithuanie/video/x8t5h4_lituanie-01-france-but-de-ribery_sport
and, yes, “Oh qu’il est beau!”

By Gaston | March 29th, 2009 at 10:32 am

win is a win

but i’m tired of 1-0 scores. would like minimum of 2 to nothing

Posted from United States

By ahmad | March 29th, 2009 at 10:55 am

hey where can i stream a replay of the full match

Posted from United States

By jeanpierre | March 29th, 2009 at 2:19 pm

i like sagna&evra at backs and fortunately france problem defense had nothing to do this time

big consistent four: gourcuff&toulalan&ribery&henry (henry less)

lyindula is a fairly good player but I prefer Nasri or Benzema over him, so lyindula can sit on the bench

+ domenech has to work on freaking player positions because benzema was striking the other way around as if he didnt know where he was

@ahmad: nowhere but u can watch match-in-45-min on Eurosport but it has crappy litouwen-fan commentators

Posted from Netherlands

By Laurie | March 29th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Excellent match recap. I also loved Evra today.

I also like Squillaci. Hard to tell what he would offer against a really strong team, but against Lithuania he did well. He’s such a low-drama player compared to Mexes. None of those brilliant last-second tackles, but no dragging down anybody in the box by wrapping his arms around their waists, either.

As I’m sure you heard, the TV5Monde announcers were saying that he’s settling in really well at Sevilla. And since Sevilla is sitting third in La Liga (after Real Madrid and Barcelona) that has to be pretty good, right?

Anybody know if he’s been pairing up with Escude regularly? I’ve always liked Escude and am always disappointed when he seems to be perennially injured at international time.

Posted from United States

By Anthony | March 29th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Jeff, how did Squillaci play at centre-back? Just interested as a Sevillista to know how he did.

By Jeff | March 29th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

Ahmad – You can try Iker91. He’s a French guy who’s way into bootleg videos of France games, but he’s trying to run his Forum (http://iker91.fr/forum2/) as a paid subscription service, and I’ve never had any luck getting his forum to work for me. A lot of his videos show up on sites like You Tube and Daily Motion, and I’d guess that you could probably get full match downloads from him, and maybe from some other sources as well. I’m really not very good at that sort of thing (codecs, etc.).

Anthony – This match wasn’t much of a test for the defense, so Squillaci had very little to do. My general sense is that he could do well for France. He looked comfortable in this match. How’s he been doing for Sevilla?

By glancingheader | March 29th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

Nice write-up, Jeff. This match reminds me of the numerous Arsenal matches where the “weaker” team put up a resolute defense to pack in the deny space and it makes the stronger team to penetrate. France has a personnel selection problem; there is not someone who can cut through the defense.

I agree with you about Henry; he should be played on the left as that’s what he does for Barca and Benzema is better in the center than on the right where he seems lost in this match. Ribery should play behind the striker; he is wasted on the wing.

Posted from United States

By Max | March 29th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

France has the best attacking players in Europe ( perhaps) and they are still not producing many goals . I think Domenech is to blame for that . In his playing days he was a defender (a rough one ) and wants France to play a defensive game , while the natural instinct is to attack. I also think that as much as I admired his game Thierry Henry should retire from the national team.

Posted from Netherlands Antilles

By Guy | March 30th, 2009 at 2:31 am

I think overall a good match, well they got the full 3 points so has to be considered a success.

As for Squillaci, he has been a solid club player especially when he played for Monaco and Lyon. For a while I think most in France thought he and Givet could be the back central pairing for Les Bleus.

While Les Bleus do have numerous options on offense, I feel that few can play the point on top of the formation. The one player that really fits that mold now is Anelka, otherwise lots of the players are more wide strikers or wingers – Ben Afra, Menez, Nasri, Ribery, Henry, Luyindula, Remy, etc. Benzema seems to need another stiker to be at his best as does Hourau with PSG. Maybe Les Bleus need to go back to a 4-4-2 or more of a 4-2-2-2, allow Gourcuff and Ribery to float behind the stike duo.

Anyways, more thoughts on the game – http://thebeantownfrog.blogspot.com/2009/03/oooof-merci-ribery-france-gets.html

By jeff | March 30th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

I’m being a bit repetitive here, but I really think the 4-2-3-1 is the way to go. Going with this formation, and using Gourcuff, is one of the few things Domenech has gotten right.

If Gourcuff isn’t available, or if he’s out of form, I’d use the same formation with Nasri or Ribery in there.

With Henry, the expectations are so high, even when he’s one of the best players on the pitch, people can still be disappointed. For me, when Henry is on the left of the attacking midfield in the 4-2-3-1, France look like they’re on the front foot. He still looks like France’s best player to me, and I think left attacking midfield in a 4-2-3-1 is the spot where he can be the most productive. Again, for me, this is so clearly the best formation for France, I’m perplexed that not everyone else, including Domenech, agrees.

JP (not the Dutch JP on here) expressed his thoughts on Domenech’s use of the 4-2-2-2 in this blog post: http://lesbleusfrancefoot.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/france-0-scotland-1/

I tend to agree with JP’s assessment (My word, that second 1-0 loss to Scotland was painful)

When France are playing the 4-2-3-1, especially with Henry wide left, there’s some life to the team. Everything else Domenech has tried has been lifeless.

As for who to play up front in the 4-2-3-1, Anelka or Benzema could be fine. Louis Saha would probably do really well there – he’d probably be my first choice, if he’s healthy. There are probably others as well.

It helps to have someone up there who’s good in the air, because that creates more options. Saha, although he’s not very tall, is fantastic in the air, and he can score goals.

Posted from United States

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