Domenech keen to get going

FRANCE coach Raymond Domenech is impatient to play the second leg of the World Cup play-off against Ireland, perhaps because his future employment depends on it.

If France get through, Domenech will have another eight months in charge of the national team but an elimination will see him out of work very soon.

And yet the ebullient boss showed no signs of nerves on the eve of the clash – until someone mentioned penalties, that is. Domenech has a poor record in shoot-outs – France famously lost the 2006 World Cup final to Italy after a shoot-out, while Domenech’s Under-21 side lost their Euro 2002 final, 3-1, to the Czech Republic on spot-kicks.

“Penalty shoot-outs are not my speciality, I’ve lost quite a few in my time,” Domenech conceded. “But I’m impatient to begin the game: this is the type of game we all live for. We have been in quite a few tight matches like this over the years, and this time we are playing to win. I know Thierry [Henry, the captain] said the same thing. We have the team and the quality to do it.

“We’re playing as if nothing has been decided and nothing has been.”

Domenech was his typically eccentric self, no more so than when he tried to downplay the post-match row between Lassana Diarra and Keith Andrews.

“What surrounds the match is not our concern, there won’t be any English journalists out on the pitch to say this nonsense or that nonsense.”

When it was pointed out to him that in fact Ireland, and not England, were the opposition – and that their coach is Italian – he replied: “Well, their coach was sat right opposite me at the end, so I can’t imagine he heard that much.”

Domenech intimated that the bulk of his team talk would involve calming down his players and keeping them focused rather than trying to motivate them for the encounter. “If anything, they are too motivated,” he explained. “This match can open the door for the World Cup, you shouldn’t need to have to motivate people for that.

“It’s more a case of calming people down. We don’t need to go round working everyone up. The build-up to a match shouldn’t be exhausting, the match itself should be.”

He shrugged off the absence of Eric Abidal from the heart of France’s defence, and rubbished the idea that the Stade de France will feel like a home match for Ireland.

“It’s true we have shored up the defence in the last few games but we can’t lament the fact that Eric’s not here. The general idea is not to change things too much.

“As for the fans, there were a lot of French people in Ireland too. The French will get behind their team you can be sure, just as the Irish were.”

Former French manager, Michel Hidalgo said yesterday that Ireland had absolutely no chance of shocking the football world with a win in Paris.

Hidalgo is the only coach to have guided Les Bleus to two World Cup tournaments – 1982 and 1986 where they reached the semi-finals on both occasions – and faced Ireland in the 1982 qualifying tournament.

“I think that there aren’t too many fears to nourish,” Hidalgo told L‘Equipe yesterday.

“The French influence should be even greater in the return and their confidence should be boosted by what we saw in the first leg.

“Since the autumn, especially since the 1-1 draw in Serbia, there is a spirit in this selection. Frankly, I would not give a ‘sou’ (French penny) for the Irish team’s chances. It would be an enormous frustration if we did not go through.”

Hidalgo’s thoughts were echoed by any number of former French players who were interviewed by various French newspapers yesterday.

Nothing he saw in Dublin makes him fear the visitors in the Stade de France this evening.

“We were promised hell in Dublin – the wind, the rain, the atmosphere, the dead balls, the trainer – it was far from the predicted apocalypse. The pitch was good, there was a remarkable atmosphere of fair play. The coach was not on the pitch and we did not see the dangerous dead balls.

“The Irish team did not make a great impression on me. Certainly, they are courageous, intelligent and they play with an Italian style. However, we had more of the play in the opponent’s half, which is rare away from home.

“Les Bleus are certainly better. On a physical level, they were even the same. However, it is perhaps good to insist that there are still possible dangers before the return match.”