CAPTAIN VIEIRA IS BACK…

Vieira is back. French captain will finally be part of the French team which will make its entry in the Euro 2008 within half an hour. No official declaration has been made yet but a picture of the French cloakroom showing that Viera’s shirt with the number 4 was hanging alongside Thuram and Nasri ones is sufficient to ensure that Vieira will captain France during the Euro 2008. According to the rules, France is no longer entitled to change the 23 players who will take part in the competition. Patrick Vieira has missed the three preparation games of France and will leave his place alongside Claude Makelele to Lyon’s midfield Jeremy Toulalan for the game against Romania but might be ready to play against Italy and Holland. Vieira had already known a very difficult preparation in June 2006 before the World Cup but had starred during all the competition and scored 2 goals, let’s hope for Arsenal former Captain and France that Vieira will make the same come-back.

Vieira is back and the first one to pay the bill is Mathieu Flamini who is now free to move and prepare his installation in Milan.

Vieira will certainly sit on the bench as a substitute and so miss a part of the game. But he will not be alone on the bench, French striker Thierry Henry should also be there leaving his place in the French forward team to Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema. In fact, Thierry Henry is said to be slightly injured and so is not able to start the game.

Benzema and Anelka will start together a game for the first time. Until now they have only played three bits of games together. This might sound a bit risky but this pair of strikers is the one wished by a lot of French people. Was it the right choice? Beginning of answer within half an hour…