Ukraine 2-2 France

November 22nd, 2007 | by: Laurie |

What can we say about this game? It was one half of very pretty football and one half of “please let us survive this with a draw.” Fortunately we got the draw.

After the first half, I was hopeful. We were up 2-1, Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry look promising together up front, Franck Ribery is back after being hugely missed, Sidney Govou continues his renaissance, Lassana Diarra looks better than in any game since Italy, and Eric Abidal is restored to leftback, where he belongs.

And then came second half.

I don’t have a lot of time to discuss the game before heading out for Thanksgiving, so just a few thoughts.

– Nasri and Benzema, or Benzema and Henry. But not Nasri and Henry.

– My heart is breaking for Sebastien Frey. I think he got stage fright and performed way below what he’s capable of. That second goal was NOT vintage Frey.

– I’d pick a healthy Jeremy Toulalan and Lassana Diarra over any defensive midfield including Claude Makelele. Sorry, Maka. That’s just the way it is.

– Lilian Thuram is now talking about being involved through World Cup 2010. This gives me about the same feeling as the talk of Barthez’s return last year. Love you, Lilian, but for everything there is a season. He has the brains and the ball skills, but not the speed to beat the strikers. On the other hand, he looked a heckuva lot better than he did on Saturday!!

– Defense looked a whole lot better than Friday, despite having the same scoreline. Even so, though, this is not going to be the defense we want to take into the Euros.

– Despite not winning, this was still a very entertaining game. France dominated technically, Ukraine dominated when it came to quick moves on the ball in the offensive half. It was a balanced game that could have gone either way.

– And despite what all the naysayers say, we still would have qualified with the draw, even without Italy’s help.

Allez les Bleus!

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http://italy.theoffside.com Martha

Frey, it turns out, was “betrayed by a lighthouse” on the second goal. Which I think is Google’s way of say he didn’t see it because he was blinded by looking into the lights (but he’s not making excuses). I just hope Domenech doesn’t use this as an excuse to never play him again.
Terry Florida

I think France can win the world cup, I agree i love thuran and makelele but no longer as starters, they did allot for France but they no longer have their youth,thank god coupe is back, also we need to look at the goaly from l’om very promissing
Terry Florida

I think France can win the EURO cup, I agree i love thuran and makelele but no longer as starters, they did allot for France but they no longer have their youth,thank god coupe is back, also we need to look at the goaly from l’om very promissing
Skillz

You’re all underestimating Shevchenko’s clever ability of ball placement and making the goalie reach for the farthest possible area. The french goalie had to reach as much as possible. Its not his mistake Shevchenko is basically the best striker in european history.
Stef

Hmmmmmm best striker in European History ? Why the hell he doesn’t do well in Chelsea then?
The best european striker of all time, is Müller. Former german player.
And I think Henry, or Inzaghi are more talented than Shevchenko
Jean-Michel

right thats a bold statement that he’ll have a hard time backing up anytime soon. Shevchenko is good and that shot required skill but it was completely misjudged by Frey who seemed stunned/flat footed when it came his way. Even Shev chuckled at it going in afterwards.
doumé

Laurie,
Here is a story on the drawing lots of Euro 08, divided into 4 “hats”, one team to be taken of each to make a group:
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/breves2007/20071122_133448Dev.html
there are potentially frightening groups in there!