France down the Faroe Islands 5-0 after 90 minutes of power-play.
October 10, 2009: World Cup 2010 Qualifier, Group 7:
France - Faroe Islands 5-0 (2-0) 1-0 André-Pierre Gignac 34’ 2-0 André-Pierre Gignac 39’ 3-0 William Gallas 53’ 4-0 Nicolas Anelka 85’ 5-0 Karim Benzema 87’
France went into offence from the word go and didn’t stop until the final whistle. They kept possession throughout the 90 minutes and the Faroes hardly ever touched the ball on the French half – and rarely on there own half, really.
As France laid siege to the Faroese goal, it was only a question of time until the goals were going to come.
However, the Faroes road their luck during the first half an hour and kept the French from scoring. Jérémy Toulalan hit the post with a long range drive with goalkeeper Jákup Mikkelsen well beaten after 10 minutes and on 23 minutes Sidney Sidney Govou curled a shot on the junction of post and crossbar.On 32 minutes Thierry Henry was played clear in the penalty area, but from an acute angle he lobbed over the crossbar.
But on 34 minutes the luck had ran out for the Faroes when a low cross from the left found André-Piere Gignac who turned in front of goal and slotted home.
5 minutes later the same player had doubled the lead. The Faroes had an attempt – if we stretch it – on the French goal, but a few seconds later Gignac had the ball 30 metres from the Faroese goal, but surrounded by 5 defenders he was allowed to run ever so easily on their side and across to the right hand side of the field, and as he broke into the penalty, he fired a well placed diagonal shot inside the far post.
France had no intention to take it easy in the second half and 8 minutes after the restart, William Gallas’ downwards header at the far post in connection with a corner made it 3-0.
Jákup Mikkelsel made several super saves to keep the score line half-respectable - for a while at least. For example he saved from a clear Anelka with a quarter of an hour again.
With 5 minutes left of normal time, Mikkelsen saved again, but this time Anelka was there to score on the rebound.
A couple of minutes later Benzema finished the rout as he was allowed to stroll straight through a very passive Faroese defence to make it 5-0.
The French were good, but the Faroese defensive play was also much too passive and indecisive. In 3 away fixtures against France the Faroes have now lost 5-0 two times and 6-0 once.
On Wednesday, the Faroe Islands play away to Rumania in the final game of the qualifying campaign for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.