Have to agree esp. with Inara re Clerc, great to see him prove doubters like me wrong. On Govou, I can’t make up my mind either way frankly. My real concern is Henry, esp. when you have better forwards than him right now. But he has more experience than they do and this team really needs the veterans to help the young’uns.

In this case, I guess I could be lumped in with the group of so-called “haters” who think that Govou isn’t international quality, so I won’t be able to tell you that you were right and that everyone else is wrong.

But let’s focus where we have substantial agreement: Malouda is not up for it; not up for playing for France.

So, i’m totally ok with Inara about Govou.

Coupet – 6.5: Made one very crucial save in the first half to deny Valdez. Didn’t have much to do after that, but he was always there when needed to deal with the countless back passes.

Clerc – 7.5: Played with maturity and class. Rarely appeared troubled in defence and often looked dangerous when he attacked. Sure to give Sagnol a run for his money in the starting XI.
Boumsong – 6: Struggled to cope with Valdez. Had a much more assured second half. Looks unlikely to challenge Thuram and Gallas for a regular first team place.
Squillaci – 6.5: Was alert to mop up any untidiness his teammates left at the back. Kept Santa Cruz very quiet throughout the match.
Evra – 6.5: Made a few surging runs forward. Very calm and made very little mistakes, until right at the end when his stray back pass almost allowed Cardozo in.
Makélélé – 7: Quietly hung deep to do the dirty work and never strayed out of position. Unadventurous some may say, but a very disciplined performance.
Toulalan – 6: Tried to offer the extra attacking option down the middle but failed miserably. Had plenty of touches of the ball but none of them resulted in anything meaningful.
Ribéry – 6: Surprisingly quiet and off-colour. The few deliveries that he made were disappointing and wasn’t given the chance to redeem himself after being withdrawn at half time.
Malouda – 7.5: An energetic performance. Was ever-present in his own half to help out defensively and to take the ball out of his own half into attack.
Benzema – 7: Very active and lively. Heavily involved with every attacking move but perhaps played far too deep to create any real danger infront of goal.
Henry – 6: Made little impact in the 45 minutes he was on. Barely had a sight of goal but he was taking on a free-role, roaming everywhere around the pitch.
Substitutes:
Lassana Diarra – 6: Saw a lot of the ball early on in the second half but soon faded away.
Gomis – 7.5: Couldn’t quite follow up his stunning debut but still an encouraging display, with some clever touches, passes and link-up play. He could be Domenech’s ace up the sleeve at Euro 2008.
Govou – 7.5: Much more vibrant than Ribéry and provided a constant threat down the right wing. Supplied plenty of crosses and even hit the post once.
Anelka – 6: Wasn’t afforded as much space and time as he was given by Ecuador in the previous game.
Nasri – 7: Only really had time for once decent move but as you’d expect, showed a lot of youthful enthusiasm. Big things are expected of him in Austra-Switzerland.

Benjamin Tran: I agree, Clerc was far and away the best out of the back four. With the others…you could tell they were definitely subs. I expected it from Boumsong and Squillaci, but Evra should have done better.

Also, I personally thought Toulalan had a better game than Diarra, but again, it’s hard to tell because the shape of the team kept changing with each substitution. When he was on the pitch, Diarra spent most of his time operating as the lone DM, so he had a harder time of it.