France boss Jacques Santini compared William Gallas to his Chelsea team-mate Marcel Desailly after calling him up to the French squad for the first time. Santini named uncapped Gallas in his 20-man squad for upcoming Euro 2004 qualifying matches against Slovenia and Malta, and he insisted the 25-year-old would have no problem adapting to international football. `He has been in my thoughts for a long time and I nearly called him up for the match against Tunisia in August,' said Santini. `We have followed his last two games, when he played without Marcel Desailly, and he gave excellent individual performances. `He has a personality on the pitch as well as good mental qualities. It is also true that there are certain similarities with he and Desailly on the pitch.' Good to see WG get called up - better late than never I suppose. What team will we see tonight? Teamtalk is guessing: ------------------------Carlo---------------- Gallas----------Terry----------Huth-------Le Saux Gronks--------Lampard-------Morris-------Zenden ---------------Zola---------------JFH--------- Melchiot unavailable due to suspension Desailly, Ferrer, Babayaro all out with injuries Terry, Le Saux and Petit have returned to the squad but will they get to start?
Gallas in France boss hails Gallas the 'new Desailly' Gallas may be more flexible on his occassional role at RB now that he is in the squad eh? which is good as we are so much stronger when he plays RB and Terry and Des are fit and with Le sox at LB we all feel more comfortable.