Abidal out for three weeks. Toulalan and Diaby not to play
Heading into the Stade de France on Wednesday, the French National Team will be without defender Eric Abidal. Abidal suffered an injury to this left thigh in Saturday’s match against Ireland. According to Barcelona, Abidal will be out of action for about three weeks, and will more than likely miss the Clasico against Real Madrid on November 29th.
In addition to missing Abidal, Jeremy Toulalan and Abou Diaby, both of whom missed Saturday’s game, will again be missing from the French lineup on Wednesday.
Wenger: Vieira should leave Inter
If Patrick Vieira is to ever get back on the French National Team, he needs to live Inter Milan, according to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
In an interview with former French international Bixente Lizarazu, who now work for RTL, Wenger said that the Inter midfielder should leave the team. “If he wants to play the World Cup, he should change clubs because he does not play enough. And I will not be surprised if it happens,” said Wenger. He also said that he would bet on Vieira, who he called an “intelligent” and “extremely useful” player, returning to England to play.
20,000 Irish to Stade de France?
According to L’Equipe, French defender Patrice Evra said that there is expected to be some 25,000 Irish fans as the Stade de France for the second leg of the Ireland-France World Cup playoff. Evra called this “abnormal” and asked why the FFF allowed so many tickets to be sold to Irish fans. “This is not a friendly, this is a World Cup qualifier. I consider this quite abnormal,” said Evra.
Trappatoni, Keane confident of Irish victory
After the injuries to the French defense, Giovanni Trappatoni said that he is still confident that his team can qualify for the World Cup because of the weakness of the French defense. He also said that he feels that his collection of players are better than the collection that France has.
Striker Robbie Keane also said that he is confident of a victory on Wednesday. “If you look at our side, we have shown that we can win on the road,” Keane said. Keane also said that many matches come down to luck which, until this point, has gone to the French side.
Filed under: French National Team Tagged: | Abou Diaby, Arsene Wenger, Eric Abidal, Giovanni Trappatoni, Ireland, Jeremy Toulalan, Patrice Evra, Patrick Vieira, Robbie Keane
