EURO 2012: 16 under a loupe: France

France

Factsheet: 

Euro 2012 Group D: 11-06-12: France – England, 15-06-12: Ukraine – France, 19-06-12: Sweden - France

FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking: 16

Previous European Championship Appearances: 1960, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008

Qualifying record: 10+6=3-1 15-4

Interesting facts: France is the only reigning World Cup winner (1998) to win a European Championship (2000).

After Euro 2016 France will become the country hosting the European Championship the most times: 3 out of 13 tournaments.

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The shameful World Cup 2010 campaign led to thorough reconstruction in the whole French Football Federation. One of the “golden generation” heroes, Laurent Blanc, was appointed as national team head coach, after spending a couple of great seasons in charge of Bordeaux.  

Blanc decided to build his team without any major influence from the World Cup 2010 squad members. When his team lost to Belarus in the first qualification game, critics started to predict yet another failure for French football. In the end of the day we got this mysterious team to qualify to Euro directly. Most experts don’t dare to tell anything about the two-time European title holders. Any result could be logical for Les Bleus. Their group includes England, Ukraine and Sweden, which means they have to fight really hard in all of their 3 matches to be sure of a next round place.

Blanc is regularly criticized on several topics: two of them are his alleged position on the “white Frenchmen” underrepresentation debate, and the team performance, considered as inappropriate to their status in the European football map. The latter is more actual on the eve of home Euro 2016, not winning of which will become another disaster for France. The young coach has been able to give his answers, though. Despite the uprising contentious discussions about the ethnical diversity in France national football team, the vast majority of Blanc’s selection are still of other ethnical background. And the team hasn’t failed to show the expected result – qualification to the Euro. In addition, they recently won friendly matches against England in London and Germany in Bremen.

The furious history of European Championships 1960-2004 

Statistics against England: 28+8=4-16 35-66*

The match we remember: The two teams played their opening Euro 2004 Group B match against each other, putting together a thrilling performance with an exciting drama in the end. Despite a missed penalty by David Beckham, the Englishmen were in front thanks to Frank Lampard’s goal, when a sudden Zinedine Zidane brace deep inside the injury time rewarded the defending European Champions fully deserved 3 points.

Statistics against Ukraine: 6+3=3-0 9-3

The match we remember: In the cycle of 29 matches since 1998 World Cup quarterfinals to Euro 2000 final (both against Italy) the French national team failed to score twice: both matches with Ukraine. So strong was the former Soviet Republic side by then, led by the young talent Andriy Shevchenko. 

Statistics against Sweden: 17+8=5-4 25-16

The match we remember: Sweden cannot win over France for 43 years now. However they managed to make the French leave the European Championship in 1992, where Michel Platini’s side failed to win a single match, including the tournament opener against hosts Sweden. The match ended 1:1.      

Two profiles:

Samir Nasri: A player of unique creative abilities and vision, Samir Nasri has been at the spotlight for so many years, that it seems like he has to retire soon. He is only 24. Nasri’s talent was so appreciated in his first professional club of Olympique de Marseille, that he played 25 matches in his first Ligue 1 season, being only 17 years old. It has only gone the right way for him since then, as Nasri became the key player in his club in 2007, was invited to join the English heavyweights Arsenal in 2008 and then Manchester City in 2011.

Samir Nasri’s countless assists have also helped the French national teams of any age. The French Player of the Year 2010 has already played around 80 games under the Tricolore, representing his country in various age categories. He had a dream to participate in his first World Cup two years ago, but Domeneck decided to leave him at home. Now it is clear for the player and for the football world that this decision only helped Nasri to become one of the main profiles of the France national team at the Euro 2012 threshold. It was Nasri’s goal in the last qualification match against Bosnia and Herzegovina that assured the point needed to qualify to the Euro automatically. In one of the matches Blanc trusted the captaincy armband to this talented playmaker.

Samir Nasri is also compared to many great players. This Euro is the best chance for him to prove that he is a star of Platini and Zidane caliber.  

Yann M’Vila: Since Claude Makelele’s departure France have long been missing an outstanding defensive midfielder of excellent strength. But not anymore. I am not the only one talking so loud about Yann M’Vila. He was another discovery of Laurent Blanc’s famous side in the friendly match against Norway.

The unique thing about this player is his passing accuracy. Usually players of destroying roles are not passing masters, but M’Vila has already set several records thanks to this feature of him. Blanc likes to give this player both defensive and attacking responsibilities at the same time. M’Vila possesses many attributes to be considered as one of the best deep-lying playmakers in Europe. 

M’Vila has also great leadership abilities. He is surely going to captain the French national team sooner or later: at least he has done this in different French youth teams for many years and does so at Rennes from time to time. Let’s watch closer to this 22 year old player, who has already worn the French national kit in 18 occasions.

My prediction:

France seems to be a much disciplined team. 4 goals conceded in 10 matches is the second best result in the qualification. Blanc was able to find some interesting players to find their place next to top class players like Evra, Ribery, Malouda and Benzema. New names as Olivier Giroud, the Ligue 1 topscorer, Kevin Gameiro, a frequent matchwinner for PSG, and Yohan Cabaye, one of the most hard-working players in the English Premier League, are going to try their luck at their first major competition, after having spent successful seasons with their clubs.

With such a strong team selection, Les Bleus will surely show some solid performance at Euro 2012. The positive thing is that there are no bubbles in the current team and nothing moves in inertia.

However, one thing is for sure – France is in a football crisis with both football clubs and the national team losing their rank in Europe. This crisis, which unfortunately may last long, hasn’t just started. The French football system didn’t produce enough talents to successfully support the generation change in their national team. This is a completely new team. I don’t consider them “black horses”. France is a strong, developing team, with its weak and strong sides, which, unlike the previous years, should neither crush nor win the tournament this time. I see them reach the quarterfinals this summer.  

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* 6+2=3-1 7-7: played 6, won 2, tied 3, lost 1, scored 7, conceded 7

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