France won the friendly with England in a close but rather boring encounter but was eventually decided by a penalty from a Franc Ribery after David James clattered into Nicolas Anelka in the 6 yard box after after Ribery put him through on goal.
England started with a packed 5-man midfield with Gerrard playing the attacking midfielder role familiar to his club with Gareth Barry and Owen Hargreaves supporting him behind. On the wings were Joe Cole and 100 cap winner David Beckham. The all action Wayne Rooney played the lone striker role. Like William Gallas said, France were taking this friendly quite seriously and it was obvious when after half-time there were no substitutions from France where as England made 4 substitutions. Second-half was a more traditional 4-4-2 with Michael Owen and Peter Crouch coming in for Rooney and Gerrard. Joe Cole and Terry came out for Stewart Downing and Jolean Lescott. David Beckham was given more time on the pitch till he was replaced by David Bentley. France just replaced Trezeguet and Anelka with Cisse and Govou late in the second-half. England couldn’t get the break-through and Fabio Capello seemed to care more about his players’ performance than the result. But a disppointing result for the Italian none the less as his team lacked the creativity needed to beat a top-class team.
