French Team

[Leeside Swagger]

Article is from last Thursday but it doesnt sound too good for him, we need the French to be missing a few big names to give us a chance.

[Closed Account 2]

Bafetimbi Gomis looks savage for Lyon, A Drogba type player that they might play to contend with Dunne for set pieces....

Gomis is an above average player, but he's no where near as good at Drogba, he'll miss 2 in 3 chances. From what I've seen of him this season I'd compare him to Michael Owen on current form (obv. he's slightly better in the air, but not much given his size) - we've faced much better strikers in the group stage.

[geysir]

Both Gomis and Govou were playing for Lyon, teamed up well for the winner.
Govou maybe did one thing well before that when he came inside in the 2nd half, the rest of his activity out wide made no impact.
I am feeling 0.5% more confident.

[irishfan86]

Both Gomis and Govou were playing for Lyon, teamed up well for the winner.
Govou maybe did one thing well before that when he came inside in the 2nd half, the rest of his activity out wide made no impact.
I am feeling 0.5% more confident.

In fairness, doing nothing all game and having one moment of brilliance is preferable than looking dangerous all game and doing nothing.

Take Duff and McGeady for example. Duff doesn't always look lively for us, but always comes up with the goods. McGeady on the other hand always looks dangerous, but when it comes to actually making an impact, it doesn't happen.

If you watched one game of McGeady's you'd think he was one of the best players in the world who just had an off day and just missed a few chances.

[geysir]

The Lyon goal was well taken, but wasn't brilliant considering the defense.
I'd take a fit Duff over Govou, any day, any game, everytime.
McGeady has many qualities above Govou.

If Govou plays instead of Ribery, the French as an attacking force has weakened.

[Emmet7]

Benzima has been reduced to a bit player at Real Madrid. Ribery apparantly has injury problems and may not even play. Is Henry the same player he was 5 years ago? Lost some of his pace I'd say.

Anelka can blow hot and cold for the national team. And without Drogba and Lampard to put the ball on a plate for him, I'd say his chances will be few.

The rest of the team seem to be mere "water carriers" as Cantona would say.

[Leeside Swagger]

Is Henry the same player he was 5 years ago?Lost some of his pace I'd say.

He was fairy sh*t hot last year as well. The goal he got against us in 2005 had nothing to do with pace either, he's still one of the most dangerous strikers in world football imo.

[Reality Bites]

Benzima has been reduced to a bit player at Real Madrid. Ribery apparantly has injury problems and may not even play. Is Henry the same player he was 5 years ago? Lost some of his pace I'd say.

Anelka can blow hot and cold for the national team. And without Drogba and Lampard to put the ball on a plate for him, I'd say his chances will be few.

The rest of the team seem to be mere "water carriers" as Cantona would say.

Over optimistic dismissal of French Squad, our real advantage lies only in a superior manager and connected team spirit.. lets hope its enough

[frenchman]

agree with realitybites on that one...on paper there is not even any point turning up for the game as they are miles ahead of us on all fronts.even a french B team would whip us (or give us a very very very good game) on paper BUT football is not about that. it's a game made of ''what if''s. if we take the italy game (two legs) for example..
so we go out 3-3 on away goals.
1 but we were inches away from winning 3-2
2 if keane hadn't hit the crossbar in bari but scored.....
3 if they hadn't played with 10 men for the whole game , we'd have lost......
4 if pazzini thought he was playing against a player from andorra maybe he wouldn't have jumped in the same way.
I could go on forever, but all these things didn't happen and you can't just take one of them away from the equation and say we would have won or lost.
time will tell and only after the second leg in Paris will we find out.....
what we can do is try to study the two teams and the possibile impact of differetn decisions/injuries on the fixtures.
As far as I've read not one post talks about yoann gourcuff who is their new zidane.the team is still in construction and I'd prefer to meet them now and not in 2 ou 3 years time as I think the current generation is (potentially) on par with the zidane team.
I think a lot of irish people would consider roy keane to be the best irish player in recent times but when you talk to french people about him they talk about his ''fighting spirit'' qualities more so than his passing ability.
as much as we huff and puff about our best players..we just don't have a zidane , gourcuff, henry, ribery.
what we do have is a good team unit who play well together.
in one position shay given we have possibily one of the best (by best I mean top 10) in the world but apart from that we have robbie keane and richard dunne who are good premiership players but again not the best in the world (or one of the best) at what they do. despite this I still think that we can win over the two legs as football (like life) is made of upsets.
if we keep france scoreless in dublin we have a very good chance of going through......... the best thing for france to do is to go for an all out attack in Dublin and we don't have a chance.......if not who knows?

[irishultra]

for the record keanes biggest trait was his fighting ability and just because he didn't do hollywood passes didn't mean he wasn't a good passer. he was like a playmaker and he had to be especially when scholes was basically just a goal scoring central midfielder who didn't really dictate matches like he began to later(03-)

[Breizhatao]

Gourcuff is the no. 1 threat indeed although he is not at the top of his form and missed his 'Panenka' against FC Bayern last night. He is technically brilliant and do not hesitate to shoot from far range (his goal in Romania). Up front, Gignac is the main threat with Henry. The second Breton player Toulalan looks like being the keyman of the defense now. [Sad to see this these Breton Celts having to wear the blue of that country rather than the black of Brittany].

[dynamo kerry]

does anyone think it fair to say it could be a battle of their attack v our defence that will decide it.

our attack v their defence is kinda 50:50. So if our defence plays well we have every chance of actually winning the game decisively.

I've a feeling it will be a scrappy 1-0 in dublin with a toe poke by keane to knock it over the line from 2 yards while in france I can really see us getting a 0-0.

[frenchman]

maybe it's the camera angle but I think the wide pitch in Dublin will kill us, sagna, evra or the pornstar rod fanni would tear us apart, so I'd be quite happy with a 0-0 in dublin and a 1-1 in Paris.
Not really sure about gignac. I think hes a good player and liked the way he has worked his way to stardom but I'm not sure you can leave benzema, benzema and henry on the bench come crunchtime.
only time will tell what raymond throws us up in terms of starting eleven but I wouldn't really fear gomis or gignac against dunne.

[SkStu]

In my opinion, with each passing day, the scene is being set for Ireland to end their century long streak of games without an away win against top class opposition.

We will do it. Deliverance will be ours!

[SuperDave]

Gourcuff may not be a dangerman in the second leg like some suggest. If we can frustrate him in Dublin and get him booked he will miss the second leg as he is already on a yellow.

Unless of course SuperSepp changes the rules again.

[paul_oshea]

i thought they were cleared according to what some were saying?!

[blobbyblob]

I hate this talking up a lad Ive never heard of

Same happened with Yossi Benayoun with Israel and he made my life a misery

<sticks fingers in ears> LALALALA