Wed, Jun 11, 2008 page20

• EURO 2008: France stumble as Romanians earn precious point

  • AFP
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  France stumbled in their opening Euro 2008 game on Monday as Romania held Raymond Domenech's side to a goalless draw.

  Romania, beaten by France in their opening match of Euro 96, were able to stifle a largely muted Gallic attack to emerge with a priceless point in their fight to qualify from Group C.

  As for Domenech he can perhaps take consolation from the 2006 World Cup when France were slowly into gear, only exploding in the knockout stages to make it all the way to the final.

  “Every match is now effectively a knockout match,” Domenech said. “We were missing something today.”

  “I am neither pessimistic or optimistic. We were playing against a team that didn’t want to play, just wanted a draw,” he said. “We controlled the match without making many chances.”

  France went into the game boosted by the news that talismanic captain Patrick Vieira had recovered enough from the injury that had threatened to send him home to remain with the squad.

  Thierry Henry, who missed three pre-match training sessions after picking up a knock in the friendly 1-0 win on his 100th appearance for Les Bleus against Colombia, started on the bench leaving Lyon’s Karim Benzema to partner Nicolas Anelka in attack with Jeremy Toulalan taking Vieira’s place in midfield.

  France’s iron defense marshalled by Lilian Thuram, wearing Vieira’s captain’s armband, rarely let Romania have much of a look in in the first half yet Les Bleus’ domination went unrewarded.

  Franck Ribery showed occasional flashes of silky skill but up front Benzema and Anelka failed to seriously trouble Bogdan Lobont in goal.

  In the 10th minute Benzema sent a long range effort high while Anelka’s best effort was a sharply angled shot from the right which thudded in to the side netting.

  On 32 minutes Eric Abidal floated in a cross from a Ribery-taken corner only for Razvan Rat to knock the ball over the bar.

  Romania’s neatest piece of play of the first period was arguably a 1-2 between Adrian Mutu and Daniel Niculae whose shot went wide.

  The striker, who is based in France with Auxerre, was booked in the 25th minute for handball in the box, and two of his team-mates, Cosmin Contra and Dorin Goian also went into Spanish referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez’ little black book.

  Five minutes after the interval a charging Mutu was sent crashing to the ground by Willy Sagnol. The Bayern Munich defender was booked for his troubles while Mutu embedded the freekick into the Gallic wall.

  The game badly needed a goal or failing that a decent shot on target and it at least got the latter on 56 minutes when Ribery scampered down the right to center for Benzema whose low shot went straight into the hands of Lobont.

  Piturca made his first substitution on the hour mark, replacing Razvan Cocis with Paul Codrea.

  Domenech, desperately trying to inject some bite into Les Bleus’ muted bark, then followed by switching Anelka for Bafetimbi Gomis.

  Benzema was then hauled off to make way for Samir Nasri but the changes failed to produce the required effect as the final whistle came with the Romanian fans cheering and their French counterparts booing.
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