Sagna anticipating crazy game
Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna says he is expecting a “crazy game” between France and the Republic of Ireland when the sides meet in the first leg of their 2010 World Cup qualifying play-off on Saturday.
French manager Raymond Domenech is a man under pressure after Les Bleus missed out on automatic qualification for next summer's global showpiece to Serbia.
And although France won just two of their five qualifiers away from home, Sagna insists they will disappointed with anything other than a win in Dublin at the weekend.
“It’s one of the biggest games I’ve played in because at the end you can go to the World Cup so we have to win it," he said.
“I think France have just missed one (World Cup finals) so it would be a big shame to stay here. I don’t want to think about it, I just want to play at the World Cup. We have to give more than we did in qualifying and if we do that we’ll be fine.”
In contrast, Giovanni Trapattoni's side have improved considerably under the Italian's stewardship, with the boys in green going through their group unbeaten.
And Sagna believes the game will be similar to a Premier League match.
“It’ll be a very intensive game and we have to be ready. There’ll be a good atmosphere and they have good players but we (who play in the Premier League) know the players so we can talk about them to the other players," he said.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
“It’ll be a crazy game. They (the Irish) are crazy about football and I expect them to run all over the pitch to give everything and in the away game as well."
Follow FourFourTwo on Twitter for news updates, nonsense and more
Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.