Euro 2012: France begin new era against Belarus
The fallout from France’s shambolic World Cup campaign always threatened to spill over into the months following the debacle in South Africa. And so it proved.
Like the French public, new manager Laurent Blanc was so incensed that he dropped every disgraced member of the 23-man World Cup squad, while Nicolas Anelka, Patrice Evra, Franck Ribéry and Jeremy Toulalan were all slapped with various suspensions.
Only now is the backlash beginning to simmer down a little. The Euro 2012 qualifying campaign provides a clean slate. A fresh start for Les Blues to prove to their disillusioned supporters that they’re not all overpaid, spoilt prima donnas.
The unpopular coach Raymond Domenech has now gone, and France now set their sights on qualifying for the next European Championships, starting with a much-needed victory over Belarus on Friday evening.
After slipping down to 21st in the FIFA World Rankings – their lowest placing since April 1998 – France face a long, rocky road to recovery. However, topping Group D and securing their place in Poland/Ukraine, would be the perfect response for Blanc and his players to show that the French national team can bounce back from an embarrassing, shameful episode.
Along with France v Belarus, Friday night will host a number of other intriguing ties across Europe as the Euro 2012 qualification campaign gets underway. A night for an outlandish accumulator, perhaps? Hopeful punters will certainly regard it as so.
Several of Friday’s matches look awfully one-sided on paper. World champions Spain face minnows Liechtenstein in Group I, World Cup finalists Netherlands take on whipping boys San Marino in Group E, while Russia – a nation with a population of over 140 million – play the tiny principality of Andorra in Group B.
David v Goliath can’t even compare to these battles. Yet, anything is possible in football, and shocks are entirely plausible.
Aside from the matches where victory for the favourites would appear inevitable, there are several qualifiers where the outcome looks a little trickier to predict, including Slovakia v FYR Macedonia in Group B and Sweden v Hungary in Group E.
Elsewhere, it could be a difficult night for Portugal after their head coach Carlos Queiroz was handed a six-month suspension by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Authority. The former Manchester United assistant manager was found guilty of disrupting an anti-doping test and insulting the anti-doping team.
Fortunately for the Euro 2004 finalists, it’s lowly Cyprus who await in Guimarães, and not rival Group H contenders Norway or Denmark. So even without their manager and star man Cristiano Ronaldo, they should still win.
It will also be a big night for Italy, who face the only national team to already have points on the board in Euro 2012 qualifying, Estonia. Thanks to two late, late goals against Faroe Islands, the Estonians secured their first three points of the qualification campaign last month, but face an altogether tougher fixture against the Azzurri this evening.
However, the Italians have a major point to prove after a dire showing in South Africa. New coach Cesare Prandelli will be hoping to begin his competitive tenure with an away win over Estonia, and will aim to do so with a much younger squad than the flops Marcello Lippi fielded at the World Cup. Only one player – midfielder Andrea Pirlo – is over the age of 30.
On the other hand, Germany were hugely impressive in South Africa, and will kick-off their qualification campaign in Group A against Belgium in Brussels. Joachim Löw has extended his contract as the German national coach, and will be confident of finishing top of the group ahead of Turkey, who take on Kazakhstan in Astana.
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