Belarus v France
Football : Euro 2012 Qualifier
Friday 3 June 2011 - Kickoff 7:45pm

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Belarus

When Belarus won in Paris in the first set of Qualifiers for Eruo 2012, there was a genuine feeling the team may have been ready to take the next step in their international progress. They were already a solid international team, but not quite ready to mix with the big boys but the win over France gave the nation confidence... That has almost all been used up now.

Belarus sit 2nd in Group D, but they have struggled for goals and points since winning against France. They are now 4 points behind France in the race for automatic qualification for Poland/Ukraine 2012, and also have to keep Albania and Bosnia from stealing their 2nd place.

Since beating France, Bosnia have drawn 2 games with Romania and Luxembourg, both without scoring. They have beaten Albania 2-0 at home, but also lost 1-0 in the return game in Tirana. Failing to score in 3 of 4 games since the first game is not good form when getting ready for a rematch with Les Bleus.

Belarus have also drawn with Kazakhstan and lost to Canada in friendlies at home this year.

Things wont be easy for Belarus considering they are missing 8 first team players for this game. Dmitri Molosh, Aleksandr Kulchiy and Sergei Kornilenko are all suspended while Aleksandr Hleb, Vitali Kutuzov, Sergei Krivets, Vitali Rodionov and Anton Amelchenko have all been ruled out through injury.

France

The disgraceful scenes at the World Cup were fresh in the memories of the Parisans who went to the Stade de France to then see France lose to Belarus. Laurent Blanc's team had hit rock bottom, but they have bounced back since then and are on course to qualify for Euro 2012.

France lead Group D by 4 points after following the loss to Belarus with 4 straight wins. They have based their success on a solid foundation that has not been breached since the first game. Blanc is also well aware that the fans want to see his team rectify the first result between these nations and, in doing so, France can take a huge leap towards Poland/Ukraine next Summer.

France have won in Bosnia and Luxembourg, while also beating the latter and Romania at home. They have won each of these games by 2 goals to nil and can leave themselves in a strong position before visiting Albania in September.

France have kept clean sheets in 7 of their last 8 games, both in qualifiers and friendlies. They have also won games against England and Brazil in that time.

Head to Head

This will only be the 2nd meeting between the nations.

Prediction

Again I will say that France are rightly favourites to win this game as Belarus are suffering a number of injuries to their usual squad.

I expect the home team to try and make life as difficult as possible and make themselves hard to beat, but I think the French players are responding to Laurent Blanc's methods and are very focused on the task at hand.

I will play the away team to win to nil at 2.25 considering Belarus' lack of goals in games since the win in Paris, and the fact France have kept so many clean sheets.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Belarus 0-2 France

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

I'll back France win to nil @ 2.25 Ladbrokes (1 UNIT)

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