Quote:
French fear sea of green supporters
Wednesday October 6th 2004
MIKAEL SILVESTRE fears that the Republic of Ireland's supporters could be Brian Kerr's 12th man for Saturday's World Cup showdown in Paris.
The FAI have long since sold their allocation of 25,000 tickets for the 77,000-seater Stade de France and, with intrepid members of the Green Army having bought thousands more tickets on the internet, Silvestre fears that the Irish fans could outnumber their French counterparts for the Group Four qualifier.
"This could feel more like an away match for us," said the Manchester United defender. "The Irish fans will be there in great numbers and they will make themselves heard - like they always do.
"It's not when you are world champions that you need supporters," added Silvestre. "It's when you are struggling. If the French fans want to see us in the 2006 World Cup finals, they have to come on Saturday.
"I'm aware that a match against Ireland doesn't have the appeal of one against Brazil. But if we want to play Brazil again we first have to beat Ireland. We can't skip steps."
The French players have often complained about the Stade de France crowd, saying it is mainly made of up VIPs and guests and not real fans.
"The atmosphere is not that great there," said former captain Didier Deschamps. "We would love to have in Paris a crowd like they have in Marseille."
French coach Raymond Domenech has called up Marseille striker Peguy Luyindula to replace the injured David Trezeguet.
Domenech admitted that he had considered including Manchester City's Nicolas Anelka, who has not played for France since snubbing a late call-up by former coach Jacques Santini for a friendly match against Yugoslavia in November 2002.
Anelka, 25, earned the last of his 28 caps in April 2002. He made a public apology to Santini in March, but that wasn't enough to get him a place in the squad Euro 2004.
Domenech insisted that the door was open for Anelka to return at a future date, explaining: "In terms of the profile of this game, Peguy (Luyindula) seems more suited.
"We already had Djibril (Cisse) in the squad who has the same profile as a player as Nicolas. And I wanted someone more like David for the next two matches."
Despite the setbacks affecting his preparations - in addition to Trezeguet's injury, captain Patrick Vieira is suspended and midfielder Benoit Pedretti is ruled out with a knee injury - Domenech insists that the mood is buoyant in the camp and says he is not feeling any pressure regarding his job.
"Everyone is very relaxed and happy," he told reporters at the team's training base in Clairefontaine.
"Each person has their job to do. I will get on with my work and the rest does not worry me. The whole group is impatient to show what they can do."
"Our last outings were not that good but there is no objective reason for us to be worried," he added.
"We could be if we lacked gifted players but that is not the case. We have guys here who are playing for some of the best clubs in the world."
Sylvain Wiltord echoed Domenech's words, declaring: "We had below-par results recently but it doesn't mean that we are a second-rate side now.
"We must shrug off fear and doubts. We must tell ourselves that we are going to beat Ireland and Cyprus and take the six points we need to move up to the top of this group.
"We are expecting a tough physical challenge from one of our rivals in the qualification race and it may be what we now need."
"It's true that we have very little time to learn about each other. France worked like a club in the past but this is not the case any more.
"We are working to rebuild a team. You can't expect to bring it to life by simply snapping your fingers. It takes time and time is what we don't have."
Meanwhile, Richard Dunne is Kerr's only worry.
Dunne, who hasn't played for Ireland since featuring in the 3-0 win over Canada last November, went for a scan yesterday along with Graham Barrett and Alan Quinn.
"The scans on Graham and Alan were clear but Richard's showed up some damage to a calf muscle," revealed Kerr.
Sixteen players trained in Malahide yesterday while Damien Duff, John O'Shea and Garry Breen were restricted to a walk around the perimeter of the training ground.
Roy Keane and Shay Given are due to join the squad this morning and are expected to take a full part in training today.
