Houllier: It's a coin-flip

Former manager Gerard Houllier believes France have a "50-50 chance" of qualifying for South Africa following today's draw which pits them against the Republic of Ireland.

France are ninth on FIFA’s world rankings but could only finish second behind Serbia in their qualifying group.

“Ireland are one of the toughest opponents for Les Bleus,” said Houllier, who was in Zurich for the draw as a representative of France Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes.

“Beforehand I had a hunch that France would draw Ireland and I was right. They will be difficult.

“Nobody wanted to draw Ireland because they know they’ve finished their qualification group unbeaten.

“With Trapattoni (at the helm) we won’t win by scoring lots of goals but we also don’t lose a lot. It will be a great battle over 180 minutes.”

Asked if he thought France were favourites, Houllier added in L’Equipe: “I want to say yes but over two legs everything is possible. For me it will be a 50-50 chance.

“It is a good thing though that the second match is at home.

“I am sure the atmosphere at the second leg will be special and enthusiastic.”

Former Republic defender David O’Leary agreed with Houllier that the Republic, who have not beaten France since 1981, could upset their more fancied rivals.

“They’ve all seen the Italian match. I think the way Trapattoni has got this team and the players in it thinking, they won’t fear anybody,” O’Leary said on Sky Sports News.

“They respected Italy, they knew they were going to go out and play against wonderful players, but they weren’t in awe of them.

“They knew if they were all organised, stayed together and did their jobs, they could be very difficult to beat, and they proved that.”

The teams last met in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup when they played out a goalless draw in Paris before a Thierry Henry goal separated the teams at Lansdowne Road.

O’Leary does not believe the current France line-up are as strong as that team but concedes Les Bleus will still be favourites.

“I think there’s always mumblings of everything in the French squad, because they’ve got so many star players and individuals,” he added.

“They always seem to get the job done but they should’ve got out of the group they were in with the talent they’ve got. But now they’ve come through and salvaged second place and have got the chance to go to the World Cup.

“FIFA want them there because of those star players, but I hope Ireland can produce a shock and they’ll be there instead.”