Blanc 'not worried' after Belarus football shock
PARIS — Laurent Blanc refused to press the panic button despite seeing France fall to a dispiriting 1-0 defeat at home to Belarus in their opening Euro 2012 qualifier here on…
PARIS — Laurent Blanc refused to press the panic button despite seeing France fall to a dispiriting 1-0 defeat at home to Belarus in their opening Euro 2012 qualifier here on Friday.With a number of key players unavailable, France struggled to prise open the Belarusian defence and were beaten by an 86th-minute goal from substitute Sergei Kislyak.It was a bitterly disappointing result for Blanc, who was overseeing his first competitive match since taking over from Raymond Domenech after the World Cup, but he insisted he was not worried."No, I'd looked at the number of caps and the number of goals my players had," said Blanc, whose team travels to play Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday."We didn't have Karim Benzema (injured), our best goalscorer. We didn't have people who are used to scoring goals for France."We'll have to help them to digest this before we go to Bosnia, where a difficult match awaits us," added Blanc, whose side left the pitch to the familiar sound of jeers from the home fans.The hosts largely controlled the game but there was a palpable lack of creativity in attacking areas that frustrated Blanc's hopes of banishing memories of the World Cup debacle with a rousing performance."We've created a sensation," said Belarus coach Bernd Stange."The first 10 minutes we started badly, we were a bit scared. But we weren't lucky. We deserve this victory."With key creative players Yoann Gourcuff, Franck Ribery and Samir Nasri either suspended or injured, Blanc opted for a 4-4-2 system and handed the captain's armband to Chelsea winger Florent Malouda for the first time.There were 74,000 fans at the Stade de France, despite the anger provoked by events at the World Cup, but the home side began with a timorousness that was perhaps understandable given the lack of international experience in the team.Malouda and Jeremy Menez, the two wide men, were both guilty of dropping too deep and playing too narrowly, with strikers Guillaume Hoarau and Loic Remy subsequently starved of service.Set-pieces initially prove
last modification 2010-09-04 03:30:06
Add comment