News: FRANCE VS ENGLAND JUNE 11

Holy Crap!!!! We almost went down one nil. Mexes!!!! Putain!!

Can someone please tell me why Evra is there???

Blanc obviously loves him .

We look disjointed so far . Lucky to not be 1-0 down

Watching the game at thematchas.com. 1-0 England!!! Good job. Still a long time to go though.

What about the Mexes - Rami pairing? Really shaky.

This has been bad . Apart from one or two moments the build up play has been horrible . It's like they're nervous or something

That's a question Man Utd fans have been asking all season. Surley Glichy would have been a better bet.

Egalisation Sami Allez le bleus!!!!

To get past the England defense was always gonna take something special. That goal threaded something impressive.

At times it's like we're playing without a striker since Benzema likes to drift around

Nasri, Cabaye, Benz are doing most of the work up front. Malouda has disappeared. Franck did most of the work in the first 30'. Another goal should arrive, but that back line is troublant. Evra adds nothing to the attack. He's got a handful of balls that he was supposed to cross into the area. Instead, he did a short pass back to Nasri or Ribery.

I hate Evra but you cannot blame him for not wanting to cross the ball into their box , all our players are usually just outside it ! We've hit some good balls into the box and Benzema is not even there . He needs to act like a striker

That was brutal , especially towards the end . England's goalkeeper time wasting summed it up .

Debuchy and Cabaye were the best players while Benzema was the worst . The guy is suppose to be leading the line but he ends up getting fouled near the center circle and most of his shots were outside the box . I don't recall a time where he actually played on the defender . He destroyed our attacks

Giroud better start next game

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

Yea As much as I like the game, he never got him self in a dangerous position to score. I thought Blanc would put Giroud in late in the game.

England is a tough team to score on so the result is not bad. It is most important not to lose the opening game. I agree that Benzema was never in the box. Debuchy and Ribery did a good job getting into dangerous positions but there was never anyone to cross to. Hopefully Sweden and Ukraine do not play as defensive as England.

looked like Spain vs Italy

France had alot of ball ball possession and shots on target so far so good! M'villa should start next game vs Ukraine might see Menez on too

diarra was a good bandaid m'villa should fill in
Mexes wasn't that bad ! Mexes could be pair with koscielny

I'd rather see Rami - Kos myself. Mexes just doesn't fill me with confidence at all. Nice sliding challenge towards the end of the game though.

I think, all in all, you aren't satisfied but you aren't too disappointed either. Good game England. I'm kinda laughing at my "preview" that I did earlier in the thread considering I got it all wrong over who would do well and who wouldn't. Though in the end, result kinda was what I expected. I think we were correct to worry about Diarra and Mexes, the first half of Diarra, not just the marking on the goal, was exactly what he showed at Marseille this season. I hope that M'Vila will get healthy since not only will he perform better, I believe, he just brings a huge bunch more to the fore than Diarra. Diarra did improve in the second half. I think Mexes improved also though as the game wore on, but we should be fair, our defense when tested wasn't up to the one test they had.

The good: We didn't lose this game. It could have happened easily if Milner converts his chance (though one could argue that Diarra missed a header that was relatively easy too). The overall confidence we showed after we got the equalizer. Cabaye I thought was very very solid and I was kinda surprised that he was taken off in the end as opposed to Diarra (but I definitely understand that could have been too risky given that Diarra is always defensive). Ribery I think didn't disappoint, considering he was identified by the English as the danger man and he still did a bunch things well. We were the better side in the second half and that bodes well going forward.

The bad: I already mentioned Diarra's first half as well as the central defense early on, so the worst performances other than that IMO were Lloris (and Hart). There isn't any doubt that both keepers are world class, but I'd say you wouldn't know it on this match. Benzema tried in the game though England admittedly were on him immediately whenever there was possession in the attacking half. Malouda today was much a phantom, maybe the central midfield role isn't suited. Ben Arfa may be a candidate to replace him though I think Blanc will be watching the second game in the group to see what mentality we should approach Ukraine with.

Places to improve: We aren't a short team but we need to defend set pieces better. This was true during the Domenech era as well.

I think we will get better here on out and I will be watching next game (if I can) with curiosity.

What a crappy match against a mediocre opponent. It's always a pleasure to see the NT, no movements, no percussion, no creativity, Nasri, Malouda, Ribery Benzema concentrated in a small area, nobody in the penalty area since Benzema moves a lot and none of the offensive midfielders took advantage of it to converge to the penalty area . Nasri can't play on the wings. France did not even use the wings properly to stretch their 3 defensive walls. It reminded the games of Marseille in the CL with Deschamps with absolutely no risk taken on players and coaching part. It was obvious that Giroud would have brought his strenght, his presence in the penalty area but Blanc chose the continuity by keeping the same tactic even after the changes. I understand that Italy can be satisfied to tie against Spain but a draw against this England, I simply can't. We are at the first match and we are already calculating, it's a cowardish attitude.

0/10.

Tu es trop severe! Ils ont gare trois autobus devant le but!

England indeed parked a couple buses. Lets remember that they beat Spain, belgium, and norway recently with this approach so it works. offensively my biggest criticism was that we did not switch the point of attack very often and we were too reserved. There were several times when a player made a good run forward and instead of trying to play him into space we played short and kept the ball. against a defensive team it sometimes takes a moment of brilliance to score a goal and we rarey tried to have a moment of brilliance. this showsthe team is committed in its approach, but also that they are perhaps afraid to take chances.

Malouda was poor and provided very little in the game, consistent with his poor Chelsea form. He lacks creativity and vision, frequently loses the ball, and cannot beat a defender. I don't understand why he started: if he wasn't good enough to get in Chelsea's starting lineup, then he is not good enough for France. I noticed that as soon as Martin came on, the French were a lot more fluid and moved more smoothly. In the next games, Marvin or Nasri should replace Malouda in a 4-3-3. If Blanc goes back to a 4-2-3-1, then Nasri or Valbuena can be the #10. I still think it was a big mistake to cut Gourcuff and take Malouda along.

Evra does not belong on the pitch - this guy is a disgrace. He stupidly gave away a free kick that led to Gerrard's cross for the goal. Clichy should start.

Diarra was also at fault for the goal, even though England throughout the game posed very small of an attacking threat. He never deserved to be in the squad.

Benzema is supposed to be a striker, but he acts like an attacking midfielder. He dropped much too deep and did not get into good positions. Blanc should have brought in Giroud and play aerial balls to him to counter England's negative tactics.

I guess I'm satisfied with the draw. As soon as France went down 1-0 (easily could have been 2-0) I thought we could be in for a long day. The fact that we equalized and looked the better of the two sides for most of the match was satisfactory.
There were a few things that frustrated me. Benzema was not playing as a lone striker but was almost positioned more as an attacking midfielder. Debuchy had so many chances to swing a ball in but didn't because no one was in the box waiting for it. Debuchy played well but without that threat in the front, all of his work was for nothing. Rami was very iffy and was the weakest link in the Mexes-Rami partnership. Evra, as usual, was below par. Disappointed that Giroud wasn't on the pitch for the last ten minutes. I thought he could have taken advantage of a tired English backline to break the deadlock. I can understand Blanc playing for the draw but we could have attacked better without compromising the defensive side of the game.