European Football Championship 2008 / France

This article covers the French national team at the 2008 European Football Championship .

qualification

France played in the qualifying group B . It was not world champion Italy, which the Équipe tricolore will meet again in the European Championship finals, but surprisingly Scotland the biggest obstacle at which the Bleus almost failed due to two defeats in direct comparison.
France's 25 goals scored: Thierry Henry (6), Nicolas Anelka (4), Sidney Govou (3), Karim Benzema, Louis Saha, David Trézéguet (2 each), Hatem Ben Arfa, Florent Malouda, Samir Nasri, Franck Ribéry and Jérôme Rothen (1 each); in addition there was an own goal by the Georgian Malchas Assatiani .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Italy	22: 09	29
2	France	25: 05	26th
3	Scotland	21:12	24
4th	Ukraine	18:16	17th
5	Lithuania	11:13	16
6th	Georgia	16:19	10
7th	Faroe Islands	04:43	00

Georgia	-	France	0: 3
France	-	Italy	3: 1
Scotland	-	France	1-0
France	-	Faroe Islands	5-0
Lithuania	-	France	0: 1
France	-	Ukraine	2-0
France	-	Georgia	1-0
Italy	-	France	0-0
France	-	Scotland	0: 1
Faroe Islands	-	France	0: 6
France	-	Lithuania	2-0
Ukraine	-	France	2: 2

French contingent

Coach Raymond Domenech announced a preliminary list of 30 players, 14 of them from Ligue 1 , on May 18, 2008 . Not entirely surprising is the absence of David Trezeguet , although he scored 20 goals this season in Serie A ; Domenech justified this decision with the statement that he had already nominated enough offensive forces for his system. France Football added that the coach had accused the striker of a poor attitude in the past, for example because he was too bad to play for the B-Elf.

In the final line-up on May 28, there were hardly any surprises, apart from the fact that goalkeepers Frey and Mandanda preferred to Mickaël Landreau - whom Domenech had always referred to as his undisputed number 2 until shortly before - and were with the Strikers the young Gomis prevailed over the more experienced Djibril Cissé . The 20 field players are divided exactly into four full or central defenders, defensive or offensive midfield players and storm peaks; L'Équipe therefore speaks of a continuation of Domenech's 4-4-2 system . Ten of the 23 nominees earn their living in French professional football this season .

On June 2, the coach had brought Mathieu Flamini back to the training camp as a precaution until the end of the registration period ; if necessary, he should replace the ailing Patrick Vieira, who was finally left in the squad by Domenech on June 9th.

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the European Championship	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Steve Mandanda	Olympique Marseille	March 28, 1985	0	0	0	0	0
16	Sébastien Frey	AC Florence	03/18/1980	0	0	0	0	0
23	Grégory Coupet	Olympique Lyon	December 31, 1972	3	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Jean-Alain Boumsong	Olympique Lyon	December 14, 1979	1	0	0	0	0
3	Eric Abidal	FC Barcelona	09/11/1979	2	0	0	0	1
5	William Gallas	Arsenal FC	08/17/1977	3	0	0	0	0
13	Patrice Evra	Manchester United	05/15/1981	2	0	1	0	0
14th	François Clerc	Olympique Lyon	04/18/1983	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Lilian Thuram	FC Barcelona	01/01/1972	2	0	0	0	0
17th	Sébastien Squillaci	Olympique Lyon	08/11/1980	0	0	0	0	0
19th	Willy Sagnol	FC Bayern Munich	03/18/1977	2	0	1	0	0
midfield player
4th	Patrick Vieira	Inter Milan	06/23/1976	0	0	0	0	0
6th	Claude Makélélé	Chelsea FC	02/18/1973	3	0	1	0	0
7th	Florent Malouda	Chelsea FC	06/13/1980	2	0	0	0	0
10	Sidney Govou	Olympique Lyon	07/27/1979	2	0	1	0	0
11	Samir Nasri	Olympique Marseille	06/26/1987	2	0	0	0	0
20th	Jérémy Toulalan	Olympique Lyon	09/10/1983	3	0	1	0	0
21st	Lassana Diarra	Portsmouth FC	03/10/1985	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Franck Ribery	FC Bayern Munich	04/07/1983	3	0	0	0	0
striker
8th	Nicolas Anelka	Chelsea FC	03/14/1979	3	0	0	0	0
9	Karim Benzema	Olympique Lyon	December 19, 1987	2	0	0	0	0
12	Thierry Henry	FC Barcelona	08/17/1977	2	1	1	0	0
18th	Bafétimbi Gomis	AS Saint-Etienne	08/06/1985	2	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Raymond Domenech		01/24/1952

Organizational

Preparation and team hotel

The national team, which prepared in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines and then Tignes , played three international matches against Ecuador (2-0), Paraguay (0-0) and Colombia (1-0) just before the start of the tournament . She then moved into the five-star hotel Mirador Kempinski Lac Léman in Mont-Pèlerin , Switzerland , above Vevey , which she has fully booked for the entire duration of the tournament. The training ground was the Stade de Lussy in Châtel-Saint-Denis .

European Championship costs for the association

The FFF calculated total costs in the mid double-digit millions. The training camp, the hotel and travel expenses - also for observing the opposing teams in Switzerland and Austria - accounted for around four million euros. The success bonuses in the event of a title win would have been up to € 7.5 million for a good 30 people; Since the Équipe tricolore was eliminated after the preliminary round, the players did not receive a cent at their own request. The largest item, at least € 20 million, should be used for “image cultivation”: Sponsors, “important personalities” from football and politics as well as deserving officials from the regional sub-associations of the FFF were invited to the European Championship games of the Bleus looking forward.

French team games

After the preparatory games, Domenech's preferred line-up variant emerged, even if he had also tried a system with a front and a hanging tip between two forward midfield players on the wings (4-2-3-1):

Coupet
Sagnol 00000Thuram 00000Gallas 00000Abidal
000Ribéry 000Toulalan (Vieira) 000Makélélé 000Malouda
Benzema 00000Henry

Patrick Vieira had to pass the season opener against Romania due to injury, as did Thierry Henry.

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Netherlands	9: 1	9
2	Italy	3: 4	4th
3	Romania	1: 3	2
4th	France	1: 6	1

• June 9, 2008, Letzigrund in Zurich (30,585 spectators): France 0-0 Romania
  • Line-up: Coupet - Sagnol , Thuram, Gallas, Abidal - Ribéry, Toulalan,
    Makélélé, Malouda - Benzema (77th Nasri), Anelka (72nd Gomis)
  • Referee: Manuel Mejuto González (Spain)
  • France's start was just as sluggish as at the 2006 World Cup and led to some fierce criticism in the domestic media of the coach's concept and the form of several, especially the older players.
• June 13, 2008, Stade de Suisse in Bern (30,777 spectators): France 1: 4 (0: 1) Netherlands
  • Line up: Coupet - Sagnol, Thuram, Gallas, Evra - Toulalan ,
    Makélélé - Govou (75th Anelka), Ribéry, Malouda (60th Gomis) - Henry
  • Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)
  • Goals: 0: 1 Kuyt (9th) - 0: 2 van Persie (59th), 1: 2 Henry (71st), 1: 3 Robben (72nd), 1: 4 Sneijder (90th + 2)
  • This was the highest defeat of the Équipe tricolore in over a quarter of a century, the 0: 4 on August 31, 1982 in the Prinzenparkstadion against Poland , so that in the last group game a victory over Italy was necessary and even then you had to rely on the help of the Dutch against Romania .
• June 17, 2008, Letzigrund in Zurich 30,585 spectators): France - Italy 0: 2 (0: 1)
  • Line-up: Coupet - Clerc, Gallas, Abidal (24th), Evra - Govou (66th Anelka), Toulalan, Makélélé,
    Ribéry (10th Nasri, 26th Boumsong ) - Benzema, Henry
  • Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)
  • Goals: 0-1 Pirlo (25th, penalty kick) - 0-2 De Rossi (62nd)
  • Coach Domenech did without Thuram and Sagnol, instead built Abidal back into the starting line-up and directed the Équipe tricolore through Benzema as the second striker. The serious injury to Ribéry and Abidal's suspension after an "emergency brake" against Toni thwarted all hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals early on.

See also European Football Championship 2008 / Group C

Remarks

1. ↑ http://www.fff.fr/servfff/historique/selection/der_selec.shtml
2. ^ "Trezeguet, une absence attendue" , France Football of May 20, 2008, p. 66
3. ↑ http://foot2008.lequipe.fr/breves2008/20080528_135555_sans-landreau-ni-cisse_Dev.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ http://foot2008.lequipe.fr/Euro_2008_France_23.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ http://www.fff.fr/bleus/441892.shtml
7. ↑ France Football of May 27, 2008, p. 30