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Liveblog, and Lineup for France

June 17th, 2008 | By: Laurie | 19 Comments »

Yes, we are liveblogging this game. Since I am a hardcore France fan and my co-blogger Chris is a hardcore Italy fan, we decided to have this game liveblogged by a neutral — Daryl, The Offside’s editor. So be sure to stop by this site and leave lots of pro-France comments.

But wait. There’s more. From Daryl:

LIVEBLOG

Because they’re both unashamedly biased it would be unfair for either Chris or Laurie to LiveBlog this game. So we’ve got a bit of a LiveBlog special lined up.

I’m technically doing the LiveBlog, but I’ll have a Skype chat window open with both Laurie and Chris, where they’ll LiveBlog the game and I’ll cut and paste reactions from both. That way both France and Italy fans are represented.

Follow the ~~Laurie vs Chris~~ France vs Italy LiveBlog here.

And (since Chris and I live 2000 miles apart, so I can’t strangle him), a good time will be had by all.

Now, from l’Equipe:

Les équipes probables :
Coupet – Clerc (ou Sagnol), Gallas, Thuram (ou Abidal), Evra – Govou, Makelele, Toulalan, Ribéry – Henry, Benzema

Some thoughts:

– Domenech still trusts Coupet, even after Friday. What do you make of this? Would we rather see Frey, who has experience dealing with Italians?
– 4-4-2. Well, why not? 4-5-1 certainly didn’t work.
– I think Sagnol has been looking past his prime, in general, but that cross to Henry was sublime. Sagnol, or Clerc?
– And while we’re at it, Thuram or Abidal in central defense? I think I’d like to see Abidal myself
– This midfield. Interesting. Malouda benched, Ribery on the left, Govou on the right. What do you think? (I’m wondering if Nasri will be subbed in later.)
– And finally, Henry and Benzema up front. Can they be more effective than they were against Romania? Will that extra day of “rest” have Benzema fired up and playing the way he was at the beginning of the season?

What do you think? Can this lineup get the job done?

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Comments

By Mohamed | June 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am

Hi guys, you can find the lineups here: http://www.livescore.com ……

Posted from Belgium

By Shadowx55x | June 17th, 2008 at 11:57 am

i wouldnt put too much emphasis on the lineup posted on Livescore.com, they have Patrick Veira starting, which he isnt ( cause he’s still injured )

Posted from United States

By ian | June 17th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

goal..com has the lineup

N° Name Role Rating Notes
23 Coupet G. Goalkeeper
19 Sagnol W. Defender
3 Abidal É. Defender
5 Gallas W. Defender
13 Evra P. Defender
10 Govou S. Striker
6 Makelele C. Midfielder
20 Toulalan J. Midfielder
22 Ribéry F. Midfielder
12 Henry T. Striker
9 Benzema K. Striker

Posted from United States

By Laurie | June 17th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

Thanks Ian. The changes from Friday being:

Abidal for Thuram
Govou for Malouda (except on the right, with Ribery on the left)
Benzema joining Henry up front.

Cross your fingers and pray.

Posted from United States

By Laurie | June 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

Big news: Clerc is officially starting instead of Sagnol.

Posted from United States

By H | June 17th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

I’m glad to see Benzema in the lineup, and hopefully 4-4-2 will create more chances. I’m very excited for this game, but soo nervous.. I have a feeling it’s going to be very tense. Allez les bleus!

Posted from United States

By Doumé | June 17th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

First time in what, 30 years? that Italy beats France in regular time of play. It took them:
70 minutes with one man up,
82 minutes without Ribéry,
and two stellar goals (hee hee).

By Michel-Olivier | June 17th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

without zidane france is rubbish under domenech

Posted from United States

By Seb | June 17th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

It’s ok, Michel-Olivier. Ding dong, the (man) witch is dead! Ding dong, Domenech is dead!

By lamagica | June 17th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

yeah, doume, that’s it. try to find some consolation through your excuses. some call it “30 years” to make them feel better. i like to call it 6 games since 1978…with a world cup win in there, making it a total of 4 world cups. who’s your daddy?

Posted from Canada

By sandrahn | June 17th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

Doume, exactly — Italy finally broke France’s 30-year hoodoo over them. I didn’t post anything on that before the game for fear of pushing luck but my suspicion was that that is what was going to happen. A few records have already been broken in this tournament — Holland’s longstanding 30-year poor record against Italy, Turkey’s win over the Czechs, there was at least 1 more record that was broken. This seems the tournament to break records like that. When Holland thrashed Italy, I thought “hmm, the 30-year record Italy held over Holland has just been broken. That was 1978, the last time Italy beat France in open play. I hope that’s not an omen.” I guess it was.

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | June 17th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

lamagica, thanks for proving what we all know about Italy supporters: bad losers, bad winners. Graciousness is not a word in your vocabulary. There’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with what Doume said, the word “excuse” is ludicrous to apply to his point. He simply pointed out the historical FACT that Donadoni himself pointed to in his press conference, saying he was confident that Italy could finally beat France’s 30-year record against Italy. Heaven forbid that you acknowledge that France have given you a difficult time since 1978, that you haven’t been able to do what you just did in all that time. World cups have nothing to do with it, we’re talking about records that teams have against each other that are finally broken, the way Holland broke their record against you.

Posted from United States

By lamagica | June 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

sandrahn – its ironic that you’d call italians “bad losers”. you mean like domenech with his arrogance and constant slagging of italy at every opportunity?…meanwhile no one from the italian camp taking the bait? or like that chump, gallas, that said they would school italy? or like the french pm that condoned zidane’s garbage from the world cup? oh yeah, the french are divine losers.

when someone has to list that their team were without ribery for 70 min and down a man for 60min, they are making excuses for the loss. when someone has to qulaify their winning streak by saying “in regulation time” or “30 years”, they are excuses.

Posted from Canada

By Dominic Menotti | June 17th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Guys, get over it..Italia should have won by atleast 6 goals today..no no no way Luca Emiliano Toni was/will be missing those sitters before or again..i could not believe that on a 1-1 situation he fluffed up 5 chances and his misery was complete when he hit the post in the end..Grosso hit the post from a free kick, it was a comprehensive defeat..even before abidal( i seriously doubt the sane ness of Domenech in playing him as a centre back), Toni had missed with only Coupet to beat..
France has a great young pool of talent. They have a great prospect in benzema, he almost scored a magnificent goal only for our superman(without a cape) Buffon to save it..we r glad that we have a superman for a goalie

Posted from Spain

By Doumé | June 17th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Magica,
you forgot my last 2 excuses:
2 stellar goals

By Michel-Olivier | June 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

@ goume
“2 stellar goals”
from henry

Posted from United States

By lamagica | June 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

of course, how could i forget? i mean after all, that ball from pirlo that toni brought down so gracefully and then got literally raped by abidal was pure luck for italy. or was it garbage? so what if toni has scored 39 goals this year, it was still all luck. then that laser in the top left hand corner from pirlo on the pk was also luck. or was it garbage too? the grosso free kick that hit the post? luck or garbage?

sandrahn, see, you dont have to venture too far from this blog if you want to witness ‘bad losers’.

see you in 2010.

Posted from Canada

By Mohamed | June 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

Domenech humiliated Nasri, I hate Domenech !
He should take govou out!

Posted from Belgium

By Seb | June 17th, 2008 at 7:49 pm

Don’t worry, Mohamed, Domenech will be gone, and Govou could be, too. I doubt whoever replaces Domenech will be as biased toward Lyon.

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