Whistles Did Not Deter Les Bleus

Playing in the Stade des France this evening, France faced a hostile atmosphere as large groups of Tunisian supporters jeered the national anthem. Franck Ribéry does not accept this as a valid excuse for les Bleus’ poor start… As often happens when the French play one of their former colonies at home, they are faced with a hostile atmosphere. The booing of the Marseillaise to such a degree from the Tunisian fans was really quite unexpected, although Franck Ribéry does not think that France should be excused another poor start because of it.

“Tunisia played to their audience,” he stated to the AFP news agency after the match, “There were a great number of Tunisian fans in the crowd… The Tunisians, therefore, put in a lot of aggression at the start of the match and were better in the individual battles.

“We had a chance to see Titi [Thierry Henry] just before half time and his fine goal gave us confidence of the second half. And it was a good second half, as in Romania. It was no good in Romania, though, and it was important for us to win for our coach, our fans and our confidence.”

Arsenal left-back Gael Clichy was very pleased with the performance of the side despite losing an early goal. “The coach had warned us [about conceding first],” Clichy warned, “but, ultimately, the fans are happy. Overall, this was a great team performance from France and a beautiful evening.”

Double goal scorer Thierry Henry explained, “We must be more careful but at least we know we can come back,” before going onto lavish more praise on Yoann Gourcuff, who set up two goals for him this evening.

Robin Bairner