French Squad

Goalkeepers:
Fabien BARTHEZ, Grégory COUPET.

Defenders:
Jean-Alain BOUMSONG, Patrice EVRA, William GALLAS, Gaël GIVET, Mikaël SILVESTRE, Sébastien SQUILLACI, Jonathan ZEBINA.

Midfield:
Olivier DACOURT , Alou DIARRA, Ludovic GIULY, Rio Antonio MAVUBA, Robert PIRES, Patrick VIEIRA, Sylvain WILTORD.

Attackers:
Djibril CISSE, Sidney GOVOU, Thierry HENRY, David TREZEGUET.



Jonathan Zébina (Juventus) et Rio Mavuba are new players, their first time being selected.

Sylvain Wiltord, Alou Diarra, David Trezeguet, Mikaël Silvestre, Olivier Dacourt are all back after having missed the first 2 games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ptegan

Goalkeepers:
Fabien BARTHEZ, Grégory COUPET.

Defenders:
Jean-Alain BOUMSONG, Patrice EVRA, William GALLAS, Gaël GIVET, Mikaël SILVESTRE, Sébastien SQUILLACI, Jonathan ZEBINA.

Midfield:
Olivier DACOURT , Alou DIARRA, Ludovic GIULY, Rio Antonio MAVUBA, Robert PIRES, Patrick VIEIRA, Sylvain WILTORD.

Attackers:
Djibril CISSE, Sidney GOVOU, Thierry HENRY, David TREZEGUET.



Jonathan Zébina (Juventus) et Rio Mavuba are new players, their first time being selected.

Sylvain Wiltord, Alou Diarra, David Trezeguet, Mikaël Silvestre, Olivier Dacourt are all back after having missed the first 2 games.

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Vieira is only in there for their second game 'cause he is suspended for our game. Other than that, they don't look to great defensivly but going forward they have a few options.

Ptegan what is the feeling in France about the game among the French fans and the media? Do they think we have a chance against them? Are they indifferent to it due to their relatively poor start in the campaign along with poor showings in the last two major intl. competitions? Is it even going to sell out? Maybe the hype just hasn't started yet. I wonder if they have any idea how many Irish are travelling over for it.

Just a few questions to get through there as I know you haven't anything better to do. I mean it isn't as though you have spent the past week or 2 setting up a website for travelling fans along with answering various queries and emails etc......ahem.

Just heard from a friend livin over there. They are publicising the match like mad. I don't reckon it will sell out and at this rate we might out number them. That team looks stronger then I previously thought it would be.

Over here it's difficult to find much info in the papers about the match. Firstly Ireland aren't really Brazil. Most people when I ask if they think Ireland have a chance seem surprised that ireland even has a football team. They know we kick ass at rugby but football? So most don't rate us except the fottball fans that know the nationalities of players that play in England.

Also French supporters are famous for being the fair-weather kind. I'm told that pre-1998 was like pre-Charlton In Ireland, not big news. It's starting to get like that now too with more and more people unhappy seeing their players on ads on the telly but unable to 'score' on the pitch.

As soon as a major paper/mag produces an article on the match I'll translate it and throw it up here but for the moment I'm still looking........

No Rothen, Mendy, Saha or Dhorasoo?

Diarra is a Liverpool player, currently on loan at Lens.

Mavuba only played his first senior game in January of this year and is less experienced than any of our players.

Likely France team, IMO:

Coupet

Squillachi
Gallas
Givet
Evra

Pires
Dacourt
Diarra (maybe Wiltord with Giuly in the middle)
Giuly

Henry
Cisse

Just checked out Zebina's stats on soccerbase, he's only played one game this year for Juve!

Will be our toughest game in years and the French do look particularly good up front but I think their defense is definitley a bit dodgy looking - if robbie and duff are on form then we could have a great change - but at the moment that is a big IF

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Just checked out Zebina's stats on soccerbase, he's only played one game this year for Juve!

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For some reason soccerbase don't have the teams down for Italian league matches this year so only the European matches are counted. He has played the 90 minutes of all 4 of Juve's league games.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

For some reason soccerbase don't have the teams down for Italian league matches this year so only the European matches are counted. He has played the 90 minutes of all 4 of Juve's league games.

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I actually checked this out, but I only checked to see if they listed Juventus's fixtures, when I saw the list here I assumed the teams were recorded too, if you click any of the links you can see only the scorers are recorded.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

For some reason soccerbase don't have the teams down for Italian league matches this year so only the European matches are counted. He has played the 90 minutes of all 4 of Juve's league games.

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And is playing well for them too, by all accounts. That team might not have the names we're used to, but it's still a mroe talented side than us by a good bit. That said, they won't be as used to playing with eachother as our lads, so here's hoping for an upset!

Any articles you could post would be most appreciated ptegan. Already getting excited about flying over.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John83

so here's hoping for an upset!

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Roll on the 9th! Paris won't know what hit it! :)

Mate of mine sent me this yesterday As today's L'Equipe put it http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/20040929_182904Dev.html, roughly translated; "To ante up to Roy Keane and friends, you need more than just good players, you need beasts of competition."

he reckons those who are talking about it are a bit anxious but that -at least in his neck in the woods -the real cut and thrust of the armchair punditry won't start till next week.

Mikael Silvestre in l'equipe this morning :

What do you think of Ireland?

I have a special place for them. I know practially all their players. Already I have O'Shea and Roy Keane with me at Manchester. And against Keane it's going to be something special. The rivialry will be terrible. I don't know if I'll be in his area of the pitch but because he's not a softy, we need to hit him hard'

haha, the actual words he used were were 'un tendre' which means 'someone who is difficult and prone to voilent outbursts' or a 'hard-case'.

:p