Zidane To Play For France

**Stuttgart88** · 03/08/2005, 4:24 PM

Israel must be delighted.

**Don Vito** · 03/08/2005, 4:46 PM

I'm delighted, I'd rather us to beat a strong French side than a mediocre one. It's gonna be a fascinating game though with Keane and Vieira's last stand too, can expect that to be hyped to the last on Sky over the next few weeks. It'll prob put the price of tickets up with the touts alot though. To quote Alan Partridge - Scum, subhuman scum.

**Metrostars** · 03/08/2005, 5:03 PM

We're f-cked.

**tricky_colour** · 03/08/2005, 5:03 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Israel must be delighted.

Yea, I think they have played both their France games.

Someone needs to do a 'spread chart thing' with France beating
the Swiss, what would happen if we drew with France?
Also could we qualify if we lost to France?
I guess it gets complicated.

**onenilgameover** · 03/08/2005, 5:17 PM

Whatever way ye look at it its a real kick in the nuts

The only way France were ever gonna come back into the equation was by bringing back two recent great midfielders. This is fupping bad stuff. They better go hell for leather straight into them. I reckon BK is thinking bout his future prospects today.

**crc** · 03/08/2005, 5:19 PM

Ah Merde!

I still think we can do it though. We didn't give them a scare in Paris because of all the great players we had*, we did because we play very well as a team.

[SIZE=1]*we do have one or two great players BTW[/SIZE]

**swinfordfc** · 03/08/2005, 5:28 PM

Marked out of the game by o'shea !!!!!!!
what planet you been living on last year?

**tricky_colour** · 03/08/2005, 5:40 PM

Yea it's a sign of true desperation from the Froggies.

From the horses mouth:-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2003/04: Zidane spoke candidly about his form as Madrid's season derailed with defeats in the Spanish Cup final, Champions League and Primera Divisi�n. "The plain truth is I'm playing badly," he said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well let's hope so.

**youngirish** · 03/08/2005, 5:51 PM

Lads we can still beat them but its now going to be way more difficult. Besides Viera France had a slection of pretty average players in their midfield playing in most of the qualifiers (I think Dacourt is pretty s**t and Pires has been dropped) but now they'll have an extra two World Class midfielders to choose from. I'd say though that they'll only play Zidane as I can't see Viera and Makele playing together if they are going for a win.

**eirebhoy** · 03/08/2005, 6:13 PM

Makelele is one of the best holding midfielders in the world. He's a cert to start. Vieira won't play the holding role.

**Cowboy** · 03/08/2005, 6:13 PM

I remeber when we were paired with Italy in the 94 world cup and no one gave us a chance of drawing with them let alone beating them. Comments like "we're fcuked" etc are ill informed at best and hysterical at worst.

We are Irish, lets show some faith in our ability to beat the best as we have done in the past and shall do again.

**Fergie's Son** · 03/08/2005, 6:28 PM

Well, it's going to be tough. I'm still more worried about Henry though particulary with Zidane feeding him passes. That said, we play the games for a reason so let's go out there and do it! I'm flying back for the match and I'll be in fine voice for the game.

Royston will need to play a blinder but then so will everyone else. O'Shea should be dropped for the match.

**Condex** · 03/08/2005, 7:23 PM

Originally Posted by Cowboy

I remeber when we were paired with Italy in the 94 world cup and no one gave us a chance of drawing with them let alone beating them. Comments like "we're fcuked" etc are ill informed at best and hysterical at worst.

We are Irish, lets show some faith in our ability to beat the best as we have done in the past and shall do again.

Whats ill informed about that, its stating the bloddy obvious we haven't beaten a decent side comptetively in years. We'll rue dropping those 4 points against Israel..

**laurent** · 03/08/2005, 7:35 PM

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Footb...760_58903.html

**strangeirish** · 03/08/2005, 8:07 PM

Originally Posted by laurent

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Footb...760_58903.html

Good point!

**Qwerty** · 03/08/2005, 9:14 PM

The France game will be the acid test for Brain Kerr and his team - if he wins he will be a legend if he loses he probably will be looking for a new job. A draw is the most probable result though...

**tricky_colour** · 03/08/2005, 9:14 PM

If history is anything to go by we have little to worry about,
the last time we lost at home to France was in 1954 (3:5), anyone
remember it?

Also we have won *all* our home competive matches against France since
then (All preliminarys) :-

1974 2:1
1978 1:0
1982 3:2

Also a 0:0 draw in a friendly in 1989.

So our record is very good

**4tothefloor** · 03/08/2005, 9:28 PM

Lads, Zidane was poor last year for Madrid and if memory serves me correctly he was also pretty shocking during Euro 2004. He has slowed down a bit and doesn't influence games as much as he used to. I can also recall Thierry Henry moaning about the French teams tactics at Euro 2004, that being everything was built\planned around Zidane rather than Henry, and Henry felt that it wasn't getting the best out of the other players, simply because Zidane slows the play down, whereas playing to suit Henry (like Arsenal do) would mean faster movement and attacking.

As for Makelele, he is a holding defensive midfielder. Since we do most of our attacking out wide through Duff and Reid, Makelele isn't going to effect us hugely. You'll have Keane squaring up to Viera, which leaves you relying on Kilbane to put in a good show, something he is usually good for in the really big games. I'm no more worried than I was this time yesterday. France will be tough no matter what, there are other players i'd be a hell of a lot more worried about than those two.

**feo123** · 03/08/2005, 9:52 PM

So what we have Andy O'Brien and Zinedine Kilbane!!

**Cowboy** · 03/08/2005, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by Condex

Whats ill informed about that, its stating the bloddy obvious we haven't beaten a decent side comptetively in years. We'll rue dropping those 4 points against Israel..

you forget we almost beat France in Paris, you need to get positive