By Myles Palmer
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Tunisia 1 France 1
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Did you see this game on Eurosport?
Desailly looked so pissed off!
Sitting on the bench when the game started, he looked very pissed off.
I’ve rarely seen a footballer look so pissed off.
When the new boss Jacques Santini announced his squad he retained Desailly as captain.
But he didn’t start him.
That suggests Santini is his own man.
He is radical.
He knows the old guard let France down badly and new blood is essential.
Roger Lemerre let France fossilize.The players believed their own hype, became complacent.
Thuram has admitted,”In France 98 we still thought teams could beat us.”
WHAT AN ADMISSION !
Then Santini came in and changed the system in his first game.
He started with a back three of Thuram, Cristenval and Silvestre.
Last season Silvestre was superb for Man United. He is phenomenally strong, quick and agile.
He looked good in this game and butted in Zidane’s dipping corner for the first goal in 18 minutes.
HENRY, playing up front with GOVU, was awful.
In midfield, France had SAGNOL, CARRIERE, MAKELELE, ZIDANE and CANDELA.
Tunisia equalised before half time when ZITOUNI headed home a fabulous cross from the left side by MELKI on 38.
Great goal. Wouldn’t blame the defence too much for that one.
Second half, Santini brought on DESALLY,VIEIRA,PETIT and MARLET, who replaced HENRY.
Later he brought on CISSE for GOVU, and Liverpool’s CHEYROU came on for his debut.
Second half, playing with a back four, France compressed the play, gave the lively Tunisians less space, caught them offside more.
Interesting game, fair result.
Verdict : Teams are not scared of France any more.
They have to qualify for Portugal 2004.
And they have an easy group.Qualifying will sharpen them up.
Victory against Cyprus is needed after four games without a win.
SANTINI’s selections will be fascinating.
By starting so many younger players he was telling the expat millionaires than nobody’s place is automatic any more.
L’EQUIPE have been printing daily post-mortems on the World Cup, even now.
Where did it all go wrong?
How did we go from being World Champions to not scoring a goal in three games?
I fancy this Santini to do well.
It’s a serious job and there is serious work to be done. And JS could be just the man to do it,
He has told Desailly who is in charge.
That, for me, is a big moment in French football history.
As captain the great Marcel thought he was untouchable. But now nobody is untouchable.
Lemerre paid a high price for indulging his stars.
Tonight it looks as if Santini will create a young,gritty, hungry, hustling team.
It will be interesting to see if HENRY keeps his place.
ELSEWHERE, Graham Garrett came on as a sub to make it 3-0 for IRELAND in Finland.
About two years ago, maybe more, I said here that I liked Barrett and thought he could combine well with Bergkamp.
After that I never saw him again.
Some sad, sick idiots made a death threat against Neil Lennon because he is a Catholic.
In the 21st century? When are these bigots gonna grow up?
Answer: never.
I saw the old Bulgarian maestro BALAKOV, now 36, score from a penalty in a 2-2 draw with Germany.
George Graham wanted Balakov at one time, when he was playing in Portugal.
The story I heard was that George said,”I can offer you six grand a week.”
And Krassimir smiled and said, “I’m on eight at Sporting.”
G’night !
12.05 am
22nd August 2002