Gallas confident of French success
Chelsea defender William Gallas is confident France will take a giant step towards World Cup qualification with victories against the Faroe Islands and the Republic of Ireland over the next week.
Les Bleus lie fourth in Group Four and desperately need six points from the clashes with the Faroes in Lens on Saturday and the trip to Dublin four days later.
The Irish top the standings and Gallas knows next Wednesday’s game at Lansdowne Road is particularly important to their hopes of reaching Germany next summer.
He said: “Winning in Ireland is perfectly possible, even if we will probably suffer for 90 minutes. But I am confident we can do it.
“On the other hand it would not be such a great achievement to win there. As I said we will suffer, but we’ll do it.”
France are expected to beat the Faroe Islands but Gallas is warning against complacency.
“We are concentrated on our Saturday match,” he added.
“If we fail to have enough concentration and motivation we will put ourselves in trouble.
“If we lose it will be because of a lack of professionalism because we know exactly what we have to do to win.
“We must not let the Faroe Islands develop their game. We need all three points to travel to Ireland in the best possible shape. All the matches are trap matches. We must prepare well.
“Saying that we fear the Faroe Islands would be worrying but we certainly respect them.”
France coach Raymond Domenech is a fan of Ireland’s combative style and is wary of not getting into a physical scrap.
He said: “We should not reduce the Irish game to a physical game. The Irish are obviously big strong guys but they also have a good game and quality.
“We will not be able to make any mistakes in these two qualifiers. We are in a cup situation, the matches we are about to play are must-wins and that’s exciting. The prime objective is to win them all. In two months’ time we will know.”
France beat the Ivory Coast 3-0 in a friendly on August 17, a match which marked the returns to international football of Lilian Thuram, Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele.
