Players for France:

Jérémy Gavanon (Clermont)
Steve Mandanda (Le Havre)

Jérémy Berthod (OL)
Gael Clichy (Arsenal)
J-M Badiane (PSG)
Jacques Faty (Rennes)
Grégory Bourillon (Rennes)
Bakari Sagna (Auxerre)
Ronald Zubar (Caen)

Mathieu Debuchy (Lille)
Lassana Diarra (Chelsea)
Etienne Didot (Rennes)
Julien Faubert (Bordeaux)
Rio Antonio Mavuba (Bordeaux)
Franck Ribéry (OM) !!!!!!!
Jérémy Toulalan (Nantes)

Bryan Bergougnoux (Toulouse)
Jimmy Briand (Rennes)
Anthony Le Tallec (Sunderland)
Florent Sinama Pongolle (Liverpool)

4 players from Rennes !?!?

Bah, bien sur! Nous somme la centre pour le jeune talent

I went and saw this fixture about 8 years ago at my beloved Pride Park, and France won 2-1, with I think, a Thierry Henry goal...

England/france: 1-1
Man of the match: Ribéry of course

Clichy injured!!

Yes, and ufortunnatly Toulalan too.
Half-time, France/England: 0-0
Gavanon saved us twice. It's a great match, Les bleus U21 are better than Les bleus !!
But at the beginning of the match, Briand was the last defencer so why a yellow card and not a red card for Dawson?? And why no yellow cards for the english players when we see that Ribéry is always attacked? big mistery.

What can i say about Ribéry? Just wonderful.

Oui! Briand a marque le penalty!

Allez l'espoirs Rennais!

I know all professionals want to play in tournaments and at the highest level, but I couldn't believe the dirty tricks, cheating and the blatant dive Diarra took to win the penalty at the end. Compared to the honest approach the English take, how do these continental players live with themselves after blatantly cheating England out of a chance to take the game to extra-time?

Your post is very funny. "the honest approach the english take"? The english were very brutal.Normally they should have play at 9 with all the faults they commited. The referee sanctionned only one fault on three. Les bleuets deserved to win, they were better technically.

Dear AndyCardiff, please take your blinkers off for a second and try to form your own opinions rather than let yourself by blinded by the English media and their insular views. Anybody who watched the two legs and knows even a very little bit about football could have seen that France were vastly superior footballers - in terms of tactical sense, technique and ball skils. It is so easy to revert to stereotypes to try to excuse England's exit. Diarra dived, the French were sly cheats... and the poor old 'honest' English pay the price. First, the penalty was as blatant as you will see. I see no other way Diarra could have fallen after stretching for that ball and winning it. That said, it is quite possible that he has picked up some tricks from his few months at Chelsea. After all, Robben and Drogba are two of the best in the art while Frank Lampard's dive against Charlton last season was as bad as I have seen (but he's English... I hear you say! shock horror!!! I guess that like Owen, Rooney etc. it is the 'continental influence' that is forcing these 'honest' Englishmen to lose their footing at key moments.) England U21s tried to rough the French up... knowing it was the only chance they had. Dawson's foul on Briand was a disgrace and clearly he should have seen red. The English once again took fair play past the limits and their reputation continues to suffer outside the UK. Why did Lille take 4 pts off man utd? If you read the English papers it is because Lille cheated, got Scholes sent off in first leg, and Man United played badly. Of course it wasn't because lille were tactically and physically superior, or that they happen to have some good players like Bodmer and Makoun, who, despite running the midfield in both games, will remain unheard of in England unless they move to the Premiership them (something they will probably do in 10 years when they have slowed down and fancy a pay packet before retiring). The English will be just as stunend when Lyon beat Arsenal or Liverpool or Chelsea in the next round... The average English fan has no idea how much people on the continent enjoy mocking the Premiership, with its comic book defending and hilariously bad goalkeepers. Some of you even think the Premiership is the strongest league in Europe. It's so funny. Aside from M. Henry, all of the top foreigners play in Italy and Spain. If Gerrard and Lampard weren't so narrow-minded they would have followed Becks out of England long ago. Meanwhile, who was that Ribery? What a great player. I'm surprised Fulham or someone hasn't come in for him....hhahaahahahahah

Yeah, you're right, but as the British press' audience is British they were going to say that about the Man Utd-Lille games because it'd make more interesting reading.

But would it? Personally, I think a balanced view of the game would be more interesting reading. The problem is that British people would find it hard to accept that Lille were actually better than Manchester United... therefore the journos will not say so.... why? because this goes against all of the pre-conceptions that have been built up by arrogant, insular English clubs and... of course, the media. Sir Alex should be ashamed that afterwards he had to refer to Lille players (such as Bodmer) by their shirt numbers ('their No. 12 was dirty...' he said). Perhaps if he knew actually knew who 'their no. 12' was, United would not be in the position they are now, struggling to go through.

Hi Eva, No offence intended as I like the French and, as I live in Wales (see my name), support a Welsh team (see my name) and I work for a Welsh newspaper, I am not in the slightest bit biased toward the English at all.

Richardson pulled out of the tackle on Diarra, Diarra even admitting he took the dive, and the ref didn't even deny it was a dive after the game itself. Some of the French tackles were quite tasty in themselves, especially one in the corner (sorry, the players concerned escapes me) which was pretty high and career threatening and, if they are going to commit this type of foul, they should be prepared to take a little back.

As for the techincal aspect of it all, I do agree with you, the French were technically superior. However, the English tried to make up for this with hard work and determination. and the technically superior French could not gain a sufficient enough advantage without resorting to a little bit of diving at the expense of the English.

Hi Andy, apologies if my first thread came across as a personal attack. Various comments that I've heared in the last week have wound me up and i guess I finally flipped when I read your thread. I'm sure you're a nice chap with interesting views and you are of course free to offer them. We'll have to agree to disagree on the Diarra incident. I just feel it is too easy to slip into this 'cheating' foreigners 'honest' englishman nonsense. Robert Pires goes over easily for a penalty ONCE against Portsmouth (ok... maybe has tried again since without so much luck) and the English simply cannot stop talking about it. (For Pires to win a pen these days he has to be lifted off the ground and thrown into the stands). Rooney dives against Arsenal... a dive that had far more significant consequences that Pires' vs Portsmouth... and we're all too happy to brush it under the carpet. Sometimes its better to give credit where credit is due. France U21s played well, Lille played well... felicitations. Usually in football the best team wins.

salut Eva, je suis d'accord avec toi d'ailleurs si j'avais su maitriser l'anglais j'aurai aimé pouvoir parler de ce match comme tu l'as fait.
Mais il est certain que Ribéry ne s'est pas donné des coups de pieds tout seul .Le pauvre gars a passé la soirée par terre. Pour ce qui est du penalty, Lyon s'est fait volé un penalty (enfin presque)en 1/4 de finale de la ligue des champions et a simplement dit aprés qu'ils avaient perdu ce match. Donc bon niveau fair play la presse anglaise c'est pas ça (à par le guardian peut etre), et je parle meme pas de sir Alex. Euh bon d'accord la presse française a pas été super fair play aprés la victoire de Londres mais on s'est rattrapé aprés
. De toute manière Lyon va faire taire toute les mauvaises langues d'outre-manche! Qu'est ce que j'aimerai qu'ils battent Chelsea en finale..

je d'accord avec toi, je irai a Bordeaux v PSG surn dimache

quote:

Originally posted by Eva Lucie:
Hi Andy, apologies if my first thread came across as a personal attack. Various comments that I've heared in the last week have wound me up and i guess I finally flipped when I read your thread. I'm sure you're a nice chap with interesting views and you are of course free to offer them. We'll have to agree to disagree on the Diarra incident. I just feel it is too easy to slip into this 'cheating' foreigners 'honest' englishman nonsense. Robert Pires goes over easily for a penalty ONCE against Portsmouth (ok... maybe has tried again since without so much luck) and the English simply cannot stop talking about it. (For Pires to win a pen these days he has to be lifted off the ground and thrown into the stands). Rooney dives against Arsenal... a dive that had far more significant consequences that Pires' vs Portsmouth... and we're all too happy to brush it under the carpet. Sometimes its better to give credit where credit is due. France U21s played well, Lille played well... felicitations. Usually in football the best team wins.

Hi Eva, yes, I think we'll have to agree to disagree about this. Like I said, I do like the French, but I thought Diarra win the penalty unfairly. Still, you are right about the best team usually winning in the end, althoughht there have been some exceptions to this. Still, good luck in the finals France

i'll have to agree with both camps here, as Andy has said both sides put in some tough tackles, not just the english. There was a definite dive for the penalty, one camera angle in particular shows Richardson swing his leg back but then dig his foot into the ground and not follow through.

The French were definitely better technically, sadly it seems that at english clubs we do not spend enough time teaching youngsters skills as they do in France and Holland.

Please don't assume everyone in England is ignorant about foreign football, some of us know an awful lot and follow French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and German football a lot, thanks to SKY we can watch matches from all nations and all the Under 15-Under 21 tournaments. Some of us have been well aware of the qualities of people like Bodmer etc for many years.

I think the general claim for the Premiership to be the best league in the world is based on the entertainment value, as it is played at a much faster pace than games in europe, which means more happens. It certainly doesn't have the technical skills of foreign games, so i guess its just what you prefer watching.

i will agree 100% that lille have been better than Utd over the two legs, and if their strikers had been a bit sharper they could have won by more

i think its a bit harsh to say that Henry is the only top foreigner thats played in the premiership, what about Van Nistelrooy, Bergkamp, Pires, Gilberto Silva, Toure, Lauren, Ljungberg, Alonso, Hyppia, Cisse, Riise, Heinze, Ronaldo, Veron, Silvestre, Zola, Casiraghi, Hierro, Crespo, Reyes, Van Persie, Drogba, Makelele, Ferreira, Carvalho, Del Horno, Davids, Gallas, Morientes, Hasselbaink, Mendieta, Zenden, Di Matteo, Cantona, Schmeichel, Klinsmann, Ziege, Babbel, Ginola, Robert, Luque, Emre, Angel, Robben, Mutu, Kanchelskis, Riedle, Yeboah, Weah, Yorke, Amokachi, Yakubu, Kovacevic, Asprilla, Juninho, Solskjaer, Ravanelli, Vialli, Asanovic, Leboeuf, Desailly, Albert, Petrescu, Ferrer, Di Canio, Overmars, Flo, Carbone, Anelka, Eranio, Lombardo, Baiano, Dahlin, Brolin, Berger, Poborsky, Sissoko, Hamann, Poyet, Kanu, Van Hooijdonk, Solano, Boateng, Petit, Vieira, Dacourt, Jonk, Blomqvist, Suker, Rebrov, Cech, Cudicini, Reina, Boksic, Gudjohnsen, Wiltord, Karembeu, Gravesen, Smicer, Silvinho, Baros, Viduka, Malbranque, Saha, Djorkaeff, Litmanen, Blanc, Edu, Hitzelsperger, Van Bronckhorst, Foe (RIP), Geremi, Okocha, Forlan, Viana, Djetou, Forsell, Dalmat, Diouf, Luis Garcia, Gera, Kluivert, Kezman, Fabregas, Flamini, Melchiot, Reiziger etc

some were at the end of their careers and some weren't a roaring success, but you get that in every league, i'm sure there's more i've forgotten about, but they are all quality players.

Many of them are french too, you can't tell me they're not class players?

Casiraghi was a flop.

But, Eranio, Carbone, Baiano and Asanovic were quality Rams

thats how i judge all foreign players, their quality play for Derby

are you missing out Ravanelli deliberately?

Ravanelli in Italian means radishes, and that's quite an apt name after all the money he's been sucking out of us, the leech! I used to love him, and on the odd occasion I got to meet him (my cousin baby-sat his kids ) we often joke about how Inter had recently thrashed Perugia (his home-town club. He tells me he has a tattoo of their emblem, but he wouldn't tell me where). We're £40m in debt and we're still paying him owed wages despite it being 2 and a half years since he left! He once told us fans that he'd play without being paid just to stay at Derby...! Anyway, rant over.

Les bleuets, friendly match against Slovakia:

Players for the match:

Mandanda(Le havre)
Ebondo(Toulouse)/Faty(Rennes/ZubarCaen)/Berthod (Lyon)
Mavuba(Bordeaux)/Flamini(Arsenal)/Sinama-Pongolle(Blackburn Rovers)/Ribéry(Marseille)
Le Tallec(Sunderland)/ Fauvergue(Lille)

France U21/Slovakia U21: 2-1
Buts de Le tallec et Flamini.

Flamini!!!! Il sera un joueur tres bon!!