EURO 2012 qualifier preview – Albania Vs
France
2000 European champions http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Poland-c2983.
A win to stay ahead
Victory is important and crucial as it would allow Les Bleus to stay ahead of their group and keep intact their chances of qualification. With a game in hand and already leading the group, Laurent Blanc’s men are a point ahead of second placed Belarus.
France won the European Championships in 2000 and would be looking to repeat the same feat once again. However, Laurent Blanc’s men would not bee too confident especially after they drew 1-1 to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Belarus-c2849 at Minsk a few months ago.
Since that surprising draw, Les Bleus have somewhat found their feet and have fared well in their last three international friendly matches. Blanc’s side beat Ukraine 4-1, Poland 1-0 before drawing 1-1 with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chile-c2871 in an exhilarating affair.
While talking to the media, Blanc admitted that his side is making good progress but also indicated the threat posed by the Albanian side which he reckons will make things hard for his players.
“They love aerial duels as they have a lot of physical players. We have to find space but that would be hard to find. At home, the Albanians always play with great heart so I’ll expect a great competitive match,” the former France 98 World Cup winner said.
Team News
France
Eric Abidal and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Adil-Rami-c3639 (suspended) and Philippe Mexes (injured).
Alou Diarra and Stade Rennais youngster Yann M’Vila would be pairing up in the centre of the midfield and would be looking to provide width to Samir Nasri, Franck Ribery and Florent Malouda with Karim Benzema up front.
Albania
Lorik Cana has been declared fit to feature in the crunch game against Albania and would be looking to anchor the Albanian midfield against a technically astute French side that is hitting form at the right moment.
Albania squad:
Barley Sheh,
http://www.goal.com/fr/people/belgique/16173/samir-ujkani/national,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Debatik-Curri-c10731,
http://www.goal.com/fr/people/albanie/985/lorik-cana/national,
http://www.goal.com/fr/people/albanie/9374/armand-dallku/national,
http://www.goal.com/fr/people/albanie/11056/kristi-vangeli/national,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Klodian-Duro-c21203,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ervin-Bulku-c12857,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hamdi-Salihi-c15622,
http://www.goal.com/fr/people/albanie/5611/ervin-skela/national,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Altin-Lala-c5277,
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Erjon-Bogdani-c12779
Player to watch
France
Yann M'Vila
The mercural defensive midfielder from Stade Rennais has been setting the French Ligue 1 alight for the past two seasons and has become indispensable to France coach Laurent Blanc. His imposing physical strength would definitely be much valued as France
take on one of the most physically dominating sides in Europe.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lorik-Cana-c22440
The former Sunderland man has much experience after playing a lot of football in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749. The Albanian captain's distribution in the midfield is something Albania should benifit from as they look to overtake Belarus at second place in Group
D.
France squad:
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Karim-Benzema-c20350
Predictions
With France looking to be in great form of late, it seems that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Albania-c2834 will find it hard to break a French defence that is becoming more and more concrete with each passing game.
Predicted final score: Albania 0-2 France
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