 Raymond Domenech
While Greece would have been seen by many as the ideal opponent to get from Monday's draw in Zurich, Trapattoni will more than likely be happy to have been drawn against the French.
Greece are not a great team, but Ireland always tend to perform better when playing more high profile teams. So getting France, Portugal, or Russia would therefore have fitted into that mindset.
Russia are a difficult side to break down and playing them on their artificial surface would surely have caused a few problems, while Portugal are quick on the counter attack and seem to be getting better under the guidance of Carlos Quieroz.
So France is a good team to draw as they are feeling the pressure of their own fans & media, struggling to adapt to the mind-boggling tactics that Raymond Domenech conjures up, and are still relying on the individual quality of players rather than a team spirit or structure to get them through games.
Not the French team we know
Anybody who watched France during their qualifying campaign will be able to list off numerous reasons why they have to settle with the Play-Offs as their route to South Africa.
Of course, they have not totally collapsed - otherwise they wouldn't have even made it this far - but the signs are there to see that they are a fragile force.
In goal, Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda is an agile shot-stopper, although his handling, especially from corner kicks, can be quite weak. His back-up, Lyon's Hugo Loris, is probably a better all-round keeper, but Mandanda should be standing between the posts when Les Bleus travel to Dublin next month.
On paper the French defence looks very strong with Bacary Sagna, William Gallas, Sebastien Squillaci, Patrice Evra all solid performers normally. However, as a unit they tend to leak some soft goals. Eric Adibal and Julien Escude are often used too, while Rod Fanni is pushing Sagna for the right-back slot. It is a defence that can be breached by the trickery of Robbie Keane and/or the aerial dominance of Kevin Doyle, Caleb Folan, or Leon Best.
There are some star names in the French midfield with Franck Ribery, Florent Malouda, and Samir Nasri sticking out. Yet, Domenech failed to get the balance right in qualifying between attack and defence. He tends to rely on Lassana Diarra too much and if Jeremy Toulalan has a quiet evening then they struggle as a team. In contrast to this, they do have players like Ribery and Yoann Gourcuff that can change a game with a goal or a clever assist.
Up front, Thierry Henry leads the way with Nicolas Anelka usually partnering him. Again, on paper it looks fantastic, but doesn't always work. Karim Benzema is still in the mix despite being dropped recently and Andre-Pierre Gignac has proved that he is capable of scoring at international level. Cutting off the service to them is key to shutting out the French.
Ireland can evoke some fear too
Okay, so they struggled to beat Cyprus in Nicosia, drew twice with Bulgaria when they could have won, and failed to kill off Italy twice, but this Irish team is growing in confidence all of the time.
A big factor going into this Play-Off will be that France view Ireland as a difficult team to beat. After going unbeaten in qualifying, they will now try to use their stubborn streak to their favour as they attempt to qualify for the World Cup.
Just as this blog starts to step up its investigation into the French team, many journalists based in France will be trying to figure Ireland out and why they will be fearing that they can surprise everyone by beating the former world champions. | |