France under the cosh as Uruguay await

Under-pressure France go into their opening World Cup game against Uruguay tomorrow knowing nothing but victory will restore faith in their ability to make an impact in South Africa.

After a 1-0 loss to China in a warm-up match last week, which followed a 2-1 win over Costa Rica and a 1-1 draw with Tunisia, 'Les Bleus' kick-off their campaign at Green Point Stadium here in underwhelming form.

The fact that they are here at all still irks some after Thierry Henry's outrageous handball played such a pivotal role in their play-off victory over Ireland.

If that wasn't enough, the French team was then rocked by a sex scandal linking members of the team, including star player Franck Ribery, to an under-age call-girl.

Coach Raymond Domenech, who is widely disliked in France and will be replaced by former skipper Laurent Blanc after the tournament, has played down his squad's troubled build-up.

"To lose against China in our final build-up game hardly pleases me but at the end of the day, it remains a preparation match," he said. "Now we get down to the real thing."

The 1998 champion's consolation is that they are in a relatively easy group that also includes hosts South Africa and Mexico. William Gallas and Patrick Evra will lead at the back with Jeremy Toulalan and Abou Diaby shoring up midfield.

The emergence of Yoann Gourcuff, the talent of Ribery and the rejuvenation of Nicolas Anelka have given the coach a variety of options in attack, where Andre-Pierre Gignac and Florent Malouda will also be hoping to feature.

For the Uruguayans, it is another chance to relive their glory days.

They collected the 1930 World Cup and repeated the feat in 1950, but since then have rarely made an impact at the global showpiece with fourth at the 1970 finals their best performance since.

This time round expectations at home are not high and their coach Oscar Tabarez, who is in his second spell in charge having guided them to the second round in 1990, is keen to ignore their past. Instead, he wants to focus on getting the best out of a talented and maturing squad, who trounced Switzerland and Israel 3-1 and 4-1 respectively in recent friendlies.

Former AC Milan coach Tabarez is looking for the same kind of result against France. "In my humble opinion I think we can make life difficult for France," Tabarez said recently.

"They won't dictate how we play our football. They'll have a lot of respect for our team and we'd love a repeat of the kind of performances we had against Israel and Switzerland."

Uruguay's trump-card is former Manchester United star Diego Forlan, now with Atletico Madrid and potentially the deadliest Group A marksman, and with Luis Suarez they made a potent strike force.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.