France News Archives

We’ve looked at the players, now it’s time to look at the managers involved at Euro 2008 and find out how they got on:

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23 million people watched as the Azzurri defied their critics and defeated the French 2-0 in a spectacular night in Zurich. Now they face two world-class strikers and a team which have produced some of the best form at the tournament, whereas the Italians have been pretty poor in their past matches.

But the question is: can the never-tiring midfield and counter-attacking tactics of Italy overturn the fast-paced passing game of the Spaniards and reach the semi-finals? I will assess their chances.

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France 0-2 Italy. Ladies & gentlemen, this is how you mix a “Blue Lagoon”: 1 oz Vodka (Pirlo), 1 oz Blue Curaçao (De Rossi), cherry (Buffon’s save on Benzema), 1 part Lemonade. Don’t have any lemonade? We’ll settle for some Oranje zest (Huntelaar and Van Persie). The Azzurri’s Euro 2008 adventure continues to the Quarter-Finals. With rage. That of Andrea Pirlo, master sniper from the spot, and Daniele De Rossi, serving a thundering set-piece drive into the net.

It would be hasty to say “the World Champions are back”, but they’re on the right track. Today, the team looked in better shape, more motivated, more concentrated. And luck, the factor the Azzurri were so cruelly lacking until now, finally lent a helping hand to Roberto Donadoni & Co. France’s match went from bad (Franck Ribery’s injury in the 10th) to worse (Eric Abidal’s foul on Luca Toni inside the box, and resulting red card) in less than 15 minutes, and Thierry Henry’s deflection on Daniele De Rossi’s 62nd-minute free-kick was just the ultimate insult for Raymond Domenech, who will undoubtedly have to step down following his team’s elimination.

Not Roberto Donadoni. The Italian coach lives to fight another day with the Azzurri, who will now be facing Spain in the Euro 2008 Quarter-Finals. With still some doubts to erase (Who will replace the suspended Pirlo and Gattuso? When will Luca Toni finally release his goalscoring power?) but with a significant morale booster. Beating France will always do that to ya…
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France 0-2 Italy (Pirlo, pen. 25′, De Rossi 62′)
Letzigrund Stadium
Group C, Euro 2008
Tuesday 17 June 2008
Kickoff - 20:45 CET, 14:45 EST

Italy defeated France, 2-0, in a heated Group C match to sneak into the Knockout Round. Soccerlens brought the action to you live. Click below for the live blog.

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16 matches gone, 15 more to go. After the agonisingly long qualification process, the tournament itself feels brutally short - then again, that’s probably what makes up most of the excitement at this level, the fact that every match is a final.

So how have the 16 teams performed so far? Let’s look at it group by group:

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The Group of Death lives up to its reputation as both Italy and France are left on the verge of being knocked out as Holland join Portugal and Croatia in the knock-out stages.

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Netherlands (Kuyt 9′, Van Persie 59′, Robben 72′, Sneijder 90′+2) 4-1 France (Henry 71′)
Stade de Suisse Wankdorf
Group C, Euro 2008
Friday 13 June 2008
Kickoff - 20:45 CET, 14:45 EST

The Netherlands defeated France, 4-1, and advance to the next round

Soccerlens brought the action to you live. Click here for the live commentary!

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Euro 2008 fixtures and results, all in one place. Bookmark and share away:

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Romania vs France Highlights

First Half Highlights

Second Half Highlights

Netherlands vs Italy Highlights

Netherlands 1-0 Italy

Netherlands 2-0 Italy

Netherlands 3-0 Italy

For more football videos visit goalcentre.com.

After four years of waiting, Euro 2008 is only a day away. If you’re not fit, you better be doing all you can to make it happen, and if you’re healthy, it’s not a great time to get hurt. Just ask Poland about the latter…

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Head to head records for Euro 2008’s Group C participants - France, Italy, Netherlands, Romania.

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The start of Euro 2008 is only two days away, which means this is the worst time to get injured, or in Austria’s case, to get a little lazy.

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For a club that’s conquered England and Europe this season, you’d expect Manchester United to have more than 5 players going to Euro 2008.

But United’s squad is both English (or British) in its core and cosmopolitan in its nature - from South America to South Korea with a heavy dose of British talent coupled with the best of Europe, United have forged a team of champions all around.

Enough gloating - here are the 5 United players going to Euro 2008:

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There are only three more days to go before Euro 2008 begins, and though it’s an abbreviated day in the news, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

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There’s not a lot going on in the news today, but of the few headlines, there is one pretty significant one, and it’s not good news if you’re an Italy fan.

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With a week to go before Euro 2008 starts, the 16 participants are busy with their final tune-ups before next weekend. Some teams look to be on firmer ground than others as they go through their final warm-up matches and training sessions before the real action begins.

Who’s looking good heading into next weekend, and who has a few things to worry about? Here’s a group-by-group rundown of the latest news.

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Four years ago, Dan Leo told me about a new ranking system. At least, it was new to me. Like most of us, I had grown accustomed to the monthly FIFA rankings. Those rankings were quoted by the media and other football commentators as the only source, and often, they seemed to create controversy. FIFA, the media, and controversy?

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Euro 2008 features 16 teams with each consisting of a squad of 23 players (with 3 goalkeepers). The final squads were submitted on 28 May 2008 and the teams will kick off Euro 2008 on 7 June 08.

Here’s a complete list of all 16 squads (group-wise), along with a detailed preview for each team as well as each player’s key stats: age, caps, goals, squad number and current club:

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France, European Championship winners in 2000, lost twice to lowly Scotland in qualifying Group B, yet advanced after finishing runners-up to World Cup winners Italy. The French ended with 26 points to Italy’s 29, but had a more impressive goal difference – they hit 25 goals in 12 qualifiers and conceded only five.

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The Euro 2008 shop window opens in a week’s time - managers across Europe will have their scouting scopes trained at the 8 Euro 2008 stadiums looking for the best and brightest young talent to bring in during the following transfer window.

Here’s a look at the 5 hottest prospects traveling to Euro 2008 this summer:

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Looking at the world of football through the eyes of the press can give you a perverted and totally false view of what’s actually happening and on a broader scale what the world actually thinks.

So we turned to the world of football shirts - specifically, online retailers, and more specifically, a single online retailer who bribed us with a couple of free shirts (which reminds me - Simon, where are they? )

Jokes apart, the folks at Subside Sports have been kind enough to provide us with a list of the most popular shirts being sold for the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament (related: Euro 2008 kits).

Here’s the top 7:

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With just 2 weeks to go now the cream of Europe’s footballing nations are gearing up for the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland.

The fact none of the Home Nations have managed to qualify has put a dampener on the tournament for the majority of the United Kingdom’s population, but let us not get away from the fact that true football fans will still be tuning in for a feast of great action between June 7-29.

Sixteen countries divided into four groups will go head-to-head to become the pride of Europe for another four years as Greece, who stunned the football betting world in 2004, return to defend their crown.

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As always in a big tournament draw there is always several highly-fancied teams thrown together which ultimately leads to a big-name first round casualty in what is commonly referred to as a ‘Group of Death’.

Euro 2008 is no different as current world champions Italy, runners up France, the impressive-looking Holland and a Romania side, who will be written off at football betting punters’ peril, are set to battle it out for just two quarter-final places.

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Uefa’s Under-17 Championships have revealed many a burgeoning young talent to a wider audience in the last six years. It is the stage where Wayne Rooney (2002), Cesc Fabregas (2004), Nuri Sahin (2005), Toni Kroos (2006) and Bojan Krkic (2007) strutted their stuff and won the ‘Golden Boy’ award.

You have to wonder what happened to David Rodriguez after his 2003 performance, such is the mark of quality that goes with the recognition of being the best player on show. But who are this year’s likely lads ? Who cares which nation takes the trophy, we all want to know where the next generation of star names are going to come from!

From what I hear, he could come from an area of Liverpool called West Derby, via Madrid and Argentina and go by the name Gerry Brown (local translation), but we will have to wait and see. I’ve picked out eight names to keep an eye on for the duration of the event - May 4-16 in Antalya, Turkey.

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In recent seasons, we have witnessed (and continue to witness), slowly but surely, the elegant destruction of what we know as the ‘big’ teams. Spain, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Russia, Greece, and Turkey have all fallen to the inevitable rise of the ‘middle’ teams. Let’s review the movers and shakers:

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Euro 2008 promises to be massive - with or without England. Along with team beer and several exciting stars expected to leave a mark on the event, there’s also the small matter of football fans (if anyone forgets, this is what we had in Germany 2006).

I know a lot of bloggers will be covering Euro 2008, so this post is for them - while preparing Soccerlens for Euro 2008 coverage, I realised that there was no one place to get all the team flags (we already have the Euro 2008 kits, if anyone’s interested). Don’t know about you guys but I like to have images on my posts and flags / team crests are quite useful to have when you’re covering an event, even if some of them look the same (damned Europeans).

Alright then, here we go:

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France 1-0 England
Wednesday 26 March 2008, Stade de France

Despite injuries to several influential players, France were the more assured side and won the game 1-0 without much trouble. The goal came courtesy of a Ribery penalty after Anelka had been felled by James in the box. England created little, and lost possession too easily.

Of course, I’m just quoting what I read last night and this morning, since they only showed Portugal-Greece on TV here (the idiots). Beckham got his 100th cap, Terry got injured, Owen got his cap, Downing got a chance as well. Other than that, hopefully Capello learned something from this tie that will help him improve England. I was depressed when I first heard the result, but without seeing England perform you can’t honestly give up on them, can you?

Better luck against the US (May) and the Czech (August), both to be played at Wembley.

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In June, 16 of Europe’s best national sides will descend upon Austria and Switzerland for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, or as most people call it, Euro 2008. While many of the continent’s top teams will be on display, some of Europe’s - and the world’s - best will be as well, so even if your team isn’t in it, you still have plenty reason to watch.

With that in mind and before the tournament begins, we (as in I) have conjured up the juggernaut of juggernauts, an All-Star Euro 2008 Starting XI.

There are several players you won’t see on this list, like Francesco Totti, Fernando Torres, and others, but I compiled this list with one major rule - no more than two players from one country, for the sake of diversity. Keeping that rule in mind, I did try to include the best players, both promising youngsters and experienced stalwarts alike. So, while all of the names below are recognizable, you may not agree with all of the selections. Then again, you’re not supposed to.
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A shirt worth its weight in gold. Litterally. Latest news on Friday: France has officially changed its team sponsor. Yup, no more Adidas for Les Bleus, enter Nike. The contract (which should run from the period of 2011 to 2018) has apparently been reported to amount €320m (£240m) for the period of 7 years, making the French blue shirt the most expensive ever in the history of football.

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In today’s video roundup we look at yesterday’s friendlies.

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