Euro 2012 Preview: France

31May 2012

EURO2012

Laurent Blanc has the job of rebuilding France into a credible force again at international level after the disaster of previous tournaments that included a player revolt at the last World Cup. France have a huge history over the past 30 years that began with their famous semi-final defeat on penalties in the 1982 World Cup to West Germany after leading 3-1 in extra-time.

France followed that by winning the 1984 European Championships in emphatic style and were then beaten in the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup. That was the first golden era for French football and the second followed some years later when they captured the 1998 World Cup followed by the 2000 European Championships. France came within a penalty shootout of winning the World Cup again in 2006 but lost to Italy.

There is no doubt that France have the quality on the pitch to win this tournament and they qualified well losing only one of their ten games in Group D of the qualifying campaign. France are grouped in with England, the hosts Ukraine and Sweden and so they need a fast start in this group and they play England first in Donetsk. It will be difficult to imagine France not qualifying and Laurent Blanc seems to be bringing the team together again.