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France 1, England 0

March 26th, 2008 | By: jeff | 24 Comments »

France defeated England 1-0 in a friendly this evening in Paris’s Stade de France. The goal came from a penalty earned by Anelka and converted by Ribery.

Anelka airborne

The Guardian’s Paul Doyle summarized the game, “A comfortable win for an under-strength France team that was nonetheless a class above England. Anyone thinking Fabio Capello would bring a quick fix to England’s deep ill has tonight been outed as deluded. Toulalan – my man of the match for whatever that’s worth.”

Our own Rajib liked the look of Anelka, Ribery, and Malouda, but thought the defense had some shaky moments. Eric was hoping for a more impressive win, and lefutur, as feared, thought the game was boring.

Thoughts from your humble correspondent, Laurie, are forthcoming…at some point. It can be a pain to get internet access when you’re traveling.

Tags: Friendlies

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Comments

By Inara | March 26th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Today, it was Toulalan > England’s entire midfield.

The game against Mali was more interesting.

Posted from United States

By Alexander Tran | March 26th, 2008 at 5:23 pm

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/france%2Bengland/video/x4uwux_france-1-0-england-goal-ribery_sport

Posted from United States

By Rajib | March 26th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

I think Trezeguet has blown his last chance of getting a call for Euro from Domenech. The only time I noticed his presence was when got substituted !

By Patrick | March 26th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

Having watched Trezeguet all this season at Juventus, I was so convinced that this time he would finally prove Domenech wrong. Yet it’s always the same situation. As we saw in Scotland v. France, in France v. Argentina, in France v. Scotland, and now in France v. England, Trezeguet just doesn’t mesh well with Domenech’s tactical system.

Posted from United States

By nyuon | March 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm

you have to take your hat off for makelele. The guy is amazing!

Posted from Canada

By hassan | March 26th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

I’m glad for this victory. i ‘m from iran and follow france games from 1984 until now.

By jeff | March 27th, 2008 at 6:19 am

Welcome, Hassan.

By sandrahn | March 27th, 2008 at 7:41 am

Patrick, you’re so right. I watch Trez fairly regularly at Juve and he’s always dangerous, difficult to control, scores regularly. He gets great service, a classic “fox in the box” player, doesn’t work very hard or create much, he just knows how to hang around the box, a perfect opportunist. A French/Argentinean Inzaghi, much like Arsenal’s poor Crozillian Eduardo, one of the coolest, most clinical finishers I’ve ever seen–who’s now laid up with a broken leg for about a year. Players like that are rare and underrated.

It’s a shame Domenech doesn’t adapt his sytem to Trez’s strengths because I think France would score more easily. Anelka was very lively and bothered the England defense all night. And yes, the Mali game was much more exciting. But we’re talking England here, people. When was the last time you saw an “exciting” game involving England?

Kevin McCarra over at the Guardian also had a good report along the lines of Paul Doyle’s, saying basically that England were simply outclassed by an understrength French side. He also asks the pertinent question of why Malouda is so effective in the French NT but not so much at Chelsea, something I’ve been wondering myself all season.

Imagine what Benzema might’ve done last night.

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | March 27th, 2008 at 7:45 am

BTW, I think it’s very difficult to find an exciting friendly these days. The Mali game is an exception. The Brazil-Sweden game was dreadful.

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | March 27th, 2008 at 7:47 am

Oops, wanted to mention one more thing, sorry about the multiple posts: HOW ABOUT SPAIN BEATING ITALY, guys???? That gave me a great chuckle!

Posted from United States

By Jean-Michel | March 27th, 2008 at 11:06 am

That brings a smirk to my face Sandrahn @ Spain defeating Italy. My guess is that Domenech is comfortable with 1-0 victories and/or 1-1 ties. We have not seen that many blow out games this past qualifying season. The 4-4-2 remains a formation a majority of the players can adapt to even though it has not produced an abundance of goals. As for Trezeguet, poor guy didn’t get too many services to him and he’s not one to create too much for himself. I can see him left off the list easily if the injured are match fit come summer time.

Posted from United States

By laurie | March 27th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Fantastic game! More about it when I’m not paying €6 for 10 minutes on the computer. We had so much fun!!! And this French keyboard is driving me nuts, so I’m done now.

Posted from France

By Eric | March 27th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

I don’t think you could be comfortable scoring 1 goal against a team like England. How could you expect to get to the quarter finals scoring 1 goal against a team like the Netherlands who came back from a 3-0 defecit. We need to be more productive or else we will see our 1-0 gains be overcome by talented teams like the ones in our group. With that said even though I am not a fan of Cisse I must say that he had some good runs in the last ten minutes. Didn’t expect that.

Posted from United States

By sandrahn | March 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

apparently the home crowd booed Cisse when he went on, whereas Trez got lots of applause.

Posted from United States

By Seb | March 27th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

A lot of the reaction toward Cissé was due to his being an OM player and due to his clash with Yepes a couple of seasons back.

By Jeff/433 | March 27th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

What’s the consensus about Cisse that he’s being booed? Is it just PSG fans booing a Marseille player they don’t like?

By Jeff/433 | March 27th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

Seb was answering my question while I was typing it. Thanks, Seb.

By jeff | March 27th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

Player Ratings from the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield:

Gregory Coupet, 6
Embarrassed by Ashey Cole’s first-half cross and fortunate that Abidal bailed him out at his far post. Otherwise, under-used.

Eric Abidal, 7
Offers fine balance and defensive nous and appears to retain his instinctive relationship with his former Lyon team-mate Malouda

William Gallas, 6
Unchallenged until England switched to 4-4-2, with his spring and pace needed to confront Crouch and Owen thereafter

Claude Makelele, 7
As busy and tidy as ever, shuttling around at the base of the French midfielder with typical efficiency

Florent Malouda, 8
More impressive than he has been at Chelsea in recent weeks, offering balance and bite down the left. Forced James into a save

Jeremy Toulalan, 7
The Lyon midfielder oozed quality, splitting the English back-line 10 minutes in for Malouda to chase and using the ball intelligently

Francois Clerc, 6
Wonderful angled slide-rule pass liberated Anelka to win the penalty, though occasionally exposed defensively

Lilian Thuram, 7
His 138th cap and the centre-half retains his sense of positioning and timing, if not his pace. Tested by Crouch’s arrival

David Trezeguet, 4
Anonymous alongside Anelka and sporting the look of a man whose best days are some way behind him. Chanceless

Franck Ribery, 7
Calmly converted his third international goal from the spot to earn the hosts the lead, and infuriated England by dropping into space

Nicolas Anelka, 9
Impressed with his slippery running. Missed an early header but earned the penalty with a typically elusive burst of pace

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2268290,00.html

By Patrick | March 27th, 2008 at 10:35 pm

I don’t think that Mr. Fifield watched the game closely. 8 for Malouda? He played very selfishly in my opinion. Abidal wasn’t spectacular either. Although I love Anelka and he was great, a 9 is a greatly inflated rating for him. It’s not like he scored a hat trick. I agree with Trezeguet’s rating, but the reasoning that Fifield gives is ridiculous. As evidenced by Trezeguet’s great form in Italy, his best days are not behind him. And I don’t see a single mention of the lack of good crosses or exploitable balls for Trez.

Posted from United States

By Jean-Michel | March 28th, 2008 at 6:37 am

Makelele and Toulalan should have gotten the highest ratings. They sealed the deal defensively in the midfield.

Posted from United States

By lefutur | March 28th, 2008 at 10:08 am

i agree wholeheartedly with you both, patrick and jean-michel

By Inara | March 28th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

The ratings are different everywhere. It makes you wonder if we were all watching the same game! Just a few others:

France Football:

Coupet, 5
Abidal, 6
Gallas, 6
Thuram, 6
Clerc, 6
Makelele, 6
Toulalan, 5
Malouda, 4
Ribery, 7
Trezeguet, 4
Anelka, 7

Football365.fr:

Coupet, 6
Clerc, 5.5
Thuram, 6.5
Gallas, 6
Abidal, 6
Ribéry, 7
Toulalan, 6
Makelele, 6.5
Malouda, 5.5
Anelka, 6.5
Trezeguet, 4

Goal.com

Coupet, 6
Clerc, 7
Abidal, 6.5
Gallas, 6.5
Thuram, 6
Toulalan, 8
Makelele, 7
Ribéry, 8
Malouda, 7
Anelka, 8.5
Trezeguet, 5

Posted from United States

By Jeff/433 | March 28th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

I enjoy player ratings, but I’d always felt like they were sort of an arbitrary scale. To remedy that, I’ve proposed the following Player Rating Guide.

10 (A+) One for the ages, like Zidane against Brazil in the 1998 and 2006 World Cups
9 (A) Man among boys
8 (A-) Gotta be top of the team sheet, or thereabouts
7 (B+) Played well
6 (B/B-) Could have been better
5 (C) Trying supporters’ patience
4 (C-) Isn’t there someone else who could play there?
3 (D) Cygan-type stuff, a liability
2 (F) Likely paid to throw the game
1 (F) Like it was me out there
0 (F) Too many own goals

Source: http://www.wickeddeflection.com

By SoZe | March 30th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

I think Ashley Cole must be at the hospital getting checked out for 6th degree burns after Cissé blazed a path right around him.

Indeed, he was booed because the match was in Paris and he plays for Marseille.

Posted from Canada

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