France blasted the Faroe Islands 6-0 in their Euro 2008 Group B qualifier on Saturday despite arriving on the North Atlantic islands just hours before the match after their flight was delayed a day by fog.
Nicolas Anelka opened the scoring for the visitors, connecting with a cross from Franck Ribery to beat goalkeeper Jakup Mikkelsen after seven minutes.
A minute later, Thierry Henry won the ball and punched a low shot to the far corner past Mikkelsen to score his 41st goal in 95 appearances for France, tying a record set by Michel Platini.
Substitute Karim Benzema headed home a free-kick from Ribery on 49 minutes to make it 3-0 before Jerome Rothen scored France's fourth on 64 minutes from a direct freekick.
Benzema scored his second in the 79th minute after a pass from Henry, and Hatem Ben Arfa scored France's sixth in the third minute of injury time.
After last month's shock 1-0 home defeat by Scotland, World Cup runners-up France will qualify for next year's finals if they win their last two qualifiers against Lithuania and Ukraine.
France face Lithuania in Nantes on Wednesday before their final match against Ukraine in Kiev on Nov 21.
09 October 2007
France striker Louis Saha will miss Euro 2008 qualifiers against the Faroe Islands and Lithuania with a knee injury, the French Federation (FFF) said on Tuesday.
Saha has left France's training camp in Clairefontaine and will not be replaced in the squad, said FFF spokesman Yann Le Guillard.
France travel to the Faroe Islands on Saturday before taking on Lithuania in Nantes on Oct 17. France are third in Group B, a point behind Italy and two behind leaders Scotland.
05 October 2007
Juventus striker David Trezeguet has lambasted France coach Raymond Domenech for leaving him out of the squad for this month's Euro 2008 qualifiers against the Faroe Islands and Lithuania.
Trezeguet, who is joint top scorer with seven goals in Serie A this season, was dumped after failing to score in France's 1-0 defeat by Scotland last month. Domenech said on Thursday there was a lot of competition between strikers.
"The coach has always said that he calls up players on the basis of their performances for their clubs," Trezeguet was quoted as saying on the Gazzetta dello Sport Web site (www.gazzetta.it) on Friday.
"I have scored seven goals in six matches. I could not do more. I am disappointed. There is no explanation. I have talked with my coaches about it and no one understands the decision."
Trezeguet, 29, said he would now seriously consider his international future.
"After the World Cup I was thinking of leaving the national team and giving up my place to someone that responded better to the system of play Domenech wants," he said.
"I am giving myself two months to decide. I want to feel useful to the national team and not be called up to make up the numbers. If in time responding to the call-ups becomes a pain, then it won't be worth it any more."
World Cup finalists France, who are third in Group B, travel to the Faroe Islands on Oct. 13 before hosting Lithuania in Nantes four days later.
