France’s rapid demise towards the end of Raymond Domenech’s spell in charge was virtually inescapable to anyone with even a passing interest in football, with the nadir undoubtedly les Bleus’ shambolic World Cup campaign in the summer. Laurent Blanc has been left to pick up the pieces and rebuild a completely new side.
Initially, Blanc’s efforts looked like echoing back in an all too familiar style to those of Domenech. His opening game at home against Belarus was expected to be something of a cruise by the home public, but a 1-0 defeat, which admittedly came very much against the run of play, only served to emphasise the task at hand.
Under Domenech, France may have folded in their next encounter against Bosnia, a side supposedly the most testing of les Bleus’ group opponents. Instead of buckling, les Bleus sprung back with an impressive performance, defeating dangerous opponents 2-0 away from home to get their campaign back in order.
Blanc has spoken this week of the difficulties in building an entirely new squad. Already the former Girondins de Bordeaux coach has stripped away the flesh of the World Cup flops, leaving only essential members of that body such as Hugo Lloris and Florent Malouda. Even Jeremy Toulalan, a player previously considered almost indispensable, has been cut.
New and forgotten faces are back in the fold, men like Philippe Mexes, who either underperformed under Domenech or were simply not given a just crack of the whip.
Boasting a largely inexperienced side, France again face the fickle support of their home venue for a crucial qualifier, one they must win to maintain the good feeling earned during last month’s success over Bosnia.
Stuck In A Rut
Romania will be no easy opponents for France, but Razvan Lucescu’s side are not presently in their strongest flush.
Still, the Tricolorii are a side who know les Bleus intimately, having turned out three times against them over the course of little more than two years. And Romania have not simply made up the numbers in such encounters, drawing on three occasions.
The first of these came in Euro 2008, when a typically Raymond Domenech display from France saw them labour to a scoreless draw, never really threatening their opponents greatly over the course of the match, despite seemingly possessing by far the better squad. Then came a duo of draws in World Cup qualifying; France were forced to come from 2-0 down in Constanta to pick up a point, before scrambling a 1-1 tie in Paris.
Lucescu’s side failed to kick on from these results. There was no place in South Africa for the Romanians, who finished fifth in their qualifying section behind Serbia, les Bleus, Austria and Lithuania while Euro 2012 progression also looks unlikely off the back of draws against Albania and Belarus.
While France are coming out of their trough, Romania are at the very bottom of theirs, having hit a record low FIFA ranking of 46 in September. Another difficult evening is promised.
TEAM NEWS
France
Question marks still remain over the fitness of Abou Diaby, though the signs are that the Arsenal man will be fit for the task. Alou Diarra, on the other hand, is missing due to an ankle injury sustained on Wednesday, while Bacary Sagna’s place in the squad has been taken by Anthony Reveillere after the former picked up a problem during Arsenal’s meeting with Chelsea on Sunday.
Patrice Evra and Franck Ribery are both serving bans imposed by the French FA following the World Cup debacle, though the latter is injured in any case, while Jeremy Toulalan has simply been overlooked.
Aly Cissokho has been called into the squad due to an injury to Benoit Tremoulinas.
Dimitri Payet, who has seven goals in eight Ligue 1 encounters this season, could make his debut, probably from the bench.
Romania
Razvan Lucescu has opted for an experienced line-up for this encounter, including veteran stalwarts Cristian Chivu and Mirel Radoi. The coach has also moved to mix up his side a little in light of recent struggles as he has drafted Ianis Zicu and Stefan Radu into the side after they had been outcasted from the national side in recent times.
Prediction
Recent history between these two sides suggests that an evenly matched encounter should be expected. While the Romanians have managed to pick up three successive draws, les Bleus should be improved by the presence of Laurent Blanc in the dugout and a squad all pulling in the same direction on the field. It won’t be simple by any means, but France should pick up three points.
France 2-0 Romania 
