Preview: France vs. Switzerland

June 13th, 2006 | by: Peter |

GAME DETAILS France vs. Switzerland, Stuttgart, 18:00 CET

THE BIG PICTURE
It is a battle of experience versus youth as France’s old guard takes on the young guns from Switzerland. Zinedine Zidane and co. look to avenge a dreadful 2002 World Cup. Their path to the quarter-finals appears to be easy, but today’s match against the Swiss won’t be a walk in the park. The two teams met twice in qualifying, drawing both times. Sit back, relax and enjoy what hopefully will be a great World Cup opening round match.

Teams: Likely formation; shirt numbers, name, caps and goals, coach
France (4-3-1-2): 16-Fabien Barthez (80-0); 19-Willy Sagnol (38-0), 15-Lilian Thuram (114-2), 5-William Gallas (40-1), 3-Eric Abidal (8-0); 4-Patrick Vieira (87-4), 6-Claude Makelele (43-0), 7-Florent Malouda (13-2); 10-Zinedine Zidane (102-28); 14-Louis Saha (9-2), 12-Thierry Henry (78-33) Coach: Raymond Domenech

Switzerland (4-5-1): 1-Pascal Zuberbuehler (40-0); 3-Ludovic Magnin (30-2), 4-Philippe Senderos (12-2), 20-Patrick Mueller (64-3), 23-Philipp Degen (15-0); 8-Raphael Wicky (67-1), 6-Johann Vogel (85-2), 10-Daniel Gygax (22-5), 7-Ricardo Cabanas (37-4), 16-Tranquillo Barnetta (13-2); 9-Alex Frei (45-25) Coach: Koebi Kuhn

THE BOTTOM LINE
Bob sez: France 2-1
Chris sez: 1-1 draw
Sean sez: 1-1 draw
Peter sez: Switzerland 1-0
Nick sez: France 2-0

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IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS

France

The French consume the most cheese, per capita, in the world.

King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia–fear of cats.

France co-owns a spaceport with the European Space Agency. The Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana runs both government and private launches.

France Team Blog
Team roster
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Switzerland

The font “Helvetica,” was created in Switzerland and is named after the country’s latin name: Confoederatio Helvetica.

James Bond’s mother is Swiss.

The average Swiss eats 23 lbs of chocolate every year; the average American eats 11.7.

Switzerland Team Blog
Team Roster
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TEAM BLOGS & DISCUSSIONS
France Team Blog
Switzerland Team Blog

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Bidemi

This will be a very close match. Swiss will have no fear of the French, because they have stalemated them before.

But still the offensive power of Trez and Henry, plus the super-sub Saha definately give them the win.

2-1 to France.
BrendanLee

The French had learn their lessons well last outing…without scoring a single damn goal…!
the old zidane ,will prove he’s still capable of captaining his side to victory in this weaker group G.I’m still a silly romantic ,dreaming of the French Finest Wines,gets better when you let it age.
Nils

I’m bold enough to say, that France will just be stunned. So Switzerland will just take it with a 3 – 1
http://yahoo.com harmeet

go france go…
lets take revenge…
Yovany

What happened to Johann Volanthen. The Colombian player.

Is he injured?
http://www.pertinentverge.blogspot.com Darkoze

I’d say France will win 2 games in their group, this one being one of them.
A treacherously dangerous 2-1, 1-0 for the Swiss @ half-time.
Yovany

I’d say this one ends up in a 2-2 tie.

Can’t wait to see la verde amarella and el jogo bonito..

Brasil crushes Croatia 3 to 0
bill

The french will take this 2-0.With the half time score 1-0 to france.Theirry and louis will score a goal each.
m

It all depends how Henry and Trezi feel. After 60 games per season… If they still can fly result is obvious.