Reports from France, emanating from France Football, have suggested that national team head coach Raymond Domeenech will not toy with the fitness of Franck Ribery or Julien Escude, preferring to start both on the bench on Wednesday evening against Serbia.
While the media build up the importance of the fixture – only victory will see les Bleus maintain any real hopes of automatically reaching the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer – Domenech is preferring a low-key approach, declaring in his pre-match press conference that the game is “not decisive”.
Saturday evening’s 1-1 draw against Romania forced a sword through the heart of their qualification hopes, but all is not yet lost. Despite the disappointing result at the Stade de France at the weekend, Domenech is likely to maintain faith in the XI he deployed, aside from one alteration.
Julien Escude, who put the ball into his own net to give the Romanians’ an equaliser just minutes after captain Thierry Henry had forced les Bleus ahead, is suffering from a slight quadriceps problem and will be displaced by Eric Abidal.
This means that talisman and proven match-winner Ribery will again start on the bench, despite training normally after overcoming a calf problem.
Domenech is no stranger to high risk strategies, but his position in the job is coming under increasing pressure, so each decision he takes will be heavily scrutinised. There can be no room for error in Belgrade’s cauldron on Wednesday night.
While the media build up the importance of the fixture – only victory will see les Bleus maintain any real hopes of automatically reaching the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer – Domenech is preferring a low-key approach, declaring in his pre-match press conference that the game is “not decisive”.
Saturday evening’s 1-1 draw against Romania forced a sword through the heart of their qualification hopes, but all is not yet lost. Despite the disappointing result at the Stade de France at the weekend, Domenech is likely to maintain faith in the XI he deployed, aside from one alteration.
Julien Escude, who put the ball into his own net to give the Romanians’ an equaliser just minutes after captain Thierry Henry had forced les Bleus ahead, is suffering from a slight quadriceps problem and will be displaced by Eric Abidal.
This means that talisman and proven match-winner Ribery will again start on the bench, despite training normally after overcoming a calf problem.
Domenech is no stranger to high risk strategies, but his position in the job is coming under increasing pressure, so each decision he takes will be heavily scrutinised. There can be no room for error in Belgrade’s cauldron on Wednesday night.
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