France v Ukraine - World Cup qualification

Really hope France qualify. Will give our Frenchies a lift and will make them think twice about going to a bigger club in January only to sit on the bench #cough Cabaye #cough

 

It would be great for all of our Frenchies. Probably great for Mike Ash's bank balance if any of them make a stand out peformance and get sold for many £££ next July.

 

When are the games played and are they on tv?

 

Games not on any UK channel from what I can see. ITV have England and Sky have other home nations and also Sweden v Portugal. Luckily due to the missus being French we have French TV in the house so I will catch the second leg on Tuesday. If you're desperate to see it its probably available on some stream but not sure where.

 

Qualification is a good thing on many levels.

Cabaye - Going to be leaving this summer IMO, no better shop window than the WC
Remy - Probably not gonna be with us next year but between now and then we need one main ingriedient from him - goals. He is on the fringe of the squad, not a constant. He will be if he keeps playing and scoring. Better for us.
Mbiwa - Unlikely to make it unless he is ridiculously good. Loads of competition for him - Koscielny, Varane, Sakho, Abidal, Zouma etc. Not such a big thing for him because unlikely to be involved.
Debuchy - France have a lot of good options at right full back. However Debuchy has got himself into the regularly in the squad category. However starting spot is a big challenge with Sagna. Has to play out of his skin for us.
Sissoko - He has seen what happened to Cabaye when he dropped out of form, fell out with Newcastle. He can't aford that in WC year.

Got to be a good thing. Cabaye is quite a fragile character and not qualifying would have a negative effect on all of our lads, particularly him. All players want to play in it so it is a nice carrot at the end of a stick for them.

I think they will squeeze through. I have watched a bit of France. Quite inconsistent. Generally though they are not that good. I think the Ukranians are a bit underrated but France probably have enough star quality in Ribery to win the day.

 

Goufs worth a mention but probably falls under the Mbiwa statement. I suppose his comp but be Ribery though!

 

What competition? Gouff everytime for me!

 

Not a good result tonight.

 

Woy oot?

 

A load of the French lads (and Anita) came through the airport yesterday evening, obviously all going home during the International break.

It was interesting that Ben Arfa, Marv (I thought he'd died or something???), Gouff and Anita (going to Amsterdam, not France btw) etc were happy chilling together, and Mbiwa came through later by himself... reckon he's a bit isolated at the club or hasn't integrated with the rest of le Toon, which might explain his patchy form.

My mate was chatting to them, and said Anita was by far the friendliest and best at English, Gouff was cool and accommodating, Marv was getting hammered by two kids (no wonder he finds Premier league defenders so difficult!) and Ben Arfa was broody and sullen (my mate asked for his autograph and Ben Arfa didn't look at him or the paper while he lazily signed an approximation of his name). Now, it's obviously unfair to judge people on a few minute snapshot of their lives, but being honest it kind of just fits with their on-field presence.

 

^^^^^^^
Very interesting.

 

Bad result for us last night. As I said many underrate the Ukraine. Talented side with good technical levels. Not over but you can imagine a bus parking in the Stade de France on the way. Worried about the French lads if they crash out, I can see a hangover from them for us.

 

Sky is showing Sweden vs Portugal (we have involvement with Seb Larsson and Karlsson) but the France vs Ukraine game will be a cracker, a French player did not want to draw Portugal but the toughest team in the play offs is Ukraine, as we found out In our group. I reckon 2-1 france in the 2nd leg, and I hope Sweden get through because the Portugese dive a lot.

 

You should be able to get the French match on VIP Box or Frontrowsports.bz via a stream. I never have a problem using these sites in viewing any match

 

I was surprised so many experts felt France would cruise through. Ukraine have won all but one game (0-0 with us) they played in 2013 and conceded only 2 goals. Good team. Only one of their players plays outside of the Ukrainian league which is strange considering the quality of their players. They do get well paid though.

 

My neighbour has family ties with the Ukraine and he has always said they are very under estimated and extremely difficult to beat. I think they'll knock France out of the World Cup.

 

From the telegraph. French papers blaming the premier league players in the side for the loss.

 

Wow what a come back from France. Got to be good for the morale of our French players. Although only 2 of them played.

 

At least Cabs got a full 90 minutes.

 

That is a proper result. Shows a team with a pair of balls to come though there.