Samir Nasri was in action this evening, as France played their second of three warm up friendlies ahead of Euro 2008, again against South American opponents, this time in the form of Paraguay.
Raymond Domenech switched his side again, this time choosing to bring more experienced and regular players into the fold. The impressive Nasri was on the bench, along with Arsenal skipper William Gallas. One reported target for the Gunners Karim Benzema partnered former captain Thierry Henry up front.
The first half was a dogged encounter as both sides tried to stamp their football on the game, Karim Benzema was fantastic throughout, and came close as his effort clipped of the post. Ribery has twice tricked down the flank, but the lack of a good quality final ball was harming the cause.
Half time brought reinforcements. Bafe Gomis replaced Henry up front, Lassana Diarra came on in place of Claude Makelele, and Sidney Govou entered the frey in place of Ribery. Shortly after the game kicked off the crowd were cheering, as Samir Nasri and Nicolas Anelka warmed up on the touchlines. It seemed only a matter of time before the inventive Nasri came on.
France used the ball better during the second half, and nearly grabbed the lead on the 55th minute as Clerc’s cross found the head of Benzema, he flicked the header wide. Then following a foul on the Lyon man Benzema, France wanted to make a change with Karim being replaced with Anelka. However he wanted time to take the resulting free kick before the sub.
With 20 minutes left, and no obvious sign of a goal Domenech called Nasri over and brought him on. He replaced Jérémy Toulalan, meaning he would play in the Fabregas role alongside Lassana Diarra in midfield. Samir nearly had an instant impact, as he was involved in a passing move which led to Gomis heading just wide.
Nasri then powered his way beyond two Paraguay players, before his pass went beyond Gomis and to Anelka. As he shaped to shoot, he slipped over and was adjudged to have handled the ball. The French stepped thing up again, a flowing passing move involving, Gomis, Anelka, Nasri and Diarra ended in Govou smashing his shot off the post. The re-bound came out to Nasri who’s low drive was grabbed before it snuck into the corner.
Samir found himself in his own half mopping up following a slip from Evra, and then after leaving a player for dead with a stunning piece of skill, he worked a 1-2 pass with Diarra before Govou set Nasri up on the edge of the box. He curled his powerful effort inches wide of the target.
As stoppage time drifted away the France were going all guns out to win. Gomis attempted to work an opening for Anelka, only for his low shot to be deflected away. They would have one last chance, as Nasri’s chipped cross was hacked behind, it was wasted and it finished 0-0.
Fran Mérida & Pedro Botelho – Salamanca 1-1 Real Sociedad
This week saw Arsenal’s remaining loanee’s against each other in the Spanish Segunda, as Pedro Botelho’s UD Salamanca took on Fran Mérida’s Real Sociedad.
Mérida returned to Sociedad after scoring two goals, as the Spanish Under 19 team qualified for the Under 19 European Championships later next month. Since he had played so many games in the past week, he was rested and given a place on the bench. Pedro Botelho’s come back from several injuries was ended as he was left out of the squad with flu.
Promotion chasing Real made the better start, and leading marksman Andre Delibasic bagged his second in as many games on three minutes to give the home side the lead.
But Salamanca have been resilient this term, and kept battling away at their opponents. The reward came on the 20 minute mark, as Isaac brought the scores level. There were no further goals during the half, setting up an exciting second period.
Both sides were nervous, and showing signs for the long season as the game drew to a close. Fran was introduced as Sociedad searched for a winner on 69 minutes, and despite flashing one shot wide the sluggish nature of the game meant it finished 1-1.
Article By – J.Sanderson
when will nasri sign? it was announced for tuesday of last week.
lks like nasri a real prospect 4 us
J.S who r we liekly 2 sign this summer othr than nasri??
Sunday according to Le Grove.
The commentators were saying Arsenal had already signed him. 17M Euros
Nasri was amazing today..
Nasri played well and had a couple of shots which even though didnt result in a goal at least show hes not afraid to have a shot.I just want us to sign him now cause i dont want some other team signing him up.
JS do you think Nasri aswell as playing on the wing may be play in the position he played today when we want to give Cesc a rest or dread to think Cesc has an injury?
Yer, Royalfrenchman is right – they did say that :)
Better be True :P
He was superb tonight, as he was last week. He can play on the wings with ease or as a midfielder doesnt matter. Still a superb player, i would like to see him get more goals though
First few mins. he came in he was a lil quiet due to the fact the game was real scrappy and couldn’t get the ball. But he did look very dangerous in possession! Those 2 shots were ALMOST perfect,he only swung his body and the first time I thought it was going in. I’m not sure if you had the same commentator as me but he said it has become official and will be revealed in a couple of days and we got him around 17 million Euro. And yes I also read from Le Grove they called for a photographer to get his picture tomorrow.
he looked dangerous tonight, after its all about missed chances,i think he could bag 10-15 goal for us next year. as for other signings i would not be satisfied with yaya toure. Aaron ramsey would be fine.
Great analysis there. Nasri almost won the game for France. Like the poster said above he was a little quiet at the beginning with the French playing lots of long balls esp Diarra who thinks he’s Riquelme. I was impressed with the way Nasri imposed himself on the game and started dictating it. He went close with a couple of shots and showed some defensive workrate too. Great signing by Wenger I think he will be a key player for France coming from the bench
I thought Nasri looked excellent tonight. He’s really composed and confident in possesion and can be the one to unlock those tight defences… On a separate note, i’ve just seen a video of a “football freestyler” Jeremy Lynch who was apparently in the Arsenal academy (20years old now). His skills are pretty amazing. Did you ever see him in the academy Sanderson?
apparently nasri signed for arsenal today!!!
i hope its true!!!
check this out…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samir_Nasri
how do u get 2 see these games online would b gratful if some 1 could tell me
Yeah, that was right duel between Pedro and Merida lol. Every report mentions Pedro and yet the guy never plays.
Well Frankie I have Setanta Sports and they aired the game live. But I use to watch games online there are many other sites but that’s the site I use,you need to download some software first though. I recommend downloading Sopcast,TVU and TV Ants. They work best for me,once in a while they advertise games but end up showing another game,that’s pretty rare though,but as long as you have good internet connection you shouldn’t have a problem.
*Mate Don’t Post Links To Stream Sites, They Are Illigeal*
Wow Pedro seems even worse than Rosicky when it comes to injuries lol
Thanks for the prompt report again!
Cesc also looked pretty lively in the first game back from injury for Spain vs Peru. Put in some good, creative passes and pulled the strings pretty well.
Everybody is on about Nasri what about Benzema any chance of him signing maybe we were never after Ben Arfa
Jimmy – no i did not see him, but ive seen his videos, superb talent.
Paulinho – not true, he missed out last week, but played a part in the last 3 games.
Lou – No problem mate :D
thanks for that th much appriceated
May have been mentioned already, which channel were you able to view the French match on? Or did you copy and paste your account of the match from another website? Very detailed either way. Is anyone else bored of the Nasri soap opera-style signing? It reminds me of when Vieira was meant to be joining Real in 2002 – and of course he did not!
Nasri played with a turbo on his back, I don’t think that was that case in the other match, he was more alive, more willing to run at people and shoot on site.
Maybe because he played in Fabregas place, but it surely was noticeable.
I watched the 2 games, for France vs Paraguay, Spain vs Peru, and noticed something strange.
Nasri and Fabregas are suffering when they play for their countries.
Nasri’s first games was one case due to some players playing badly, but today in his 20 minutes another bunch came and trusted him and from there every thing was fantastic.
IN Fabregas case, today he played only the second half and was totally isolated be his teammates, I don’t know if it was intentional, but he spend most of his time on the pitch running every were without being rewarded for his 1 touch football.
At Arsenal you feel both players will get liberated with better players around them, playing better football on the eye.
France looked disjointed, Diara, Evra totally surprised me, they looked out of depth.
France would have benefited a lot if they had Sagna and especially Clichy who would have gave France better width from the back and invention going forward.
Benzema looked class and he is on course to establish him self with Gomez as the next long term partnership for France’s forward line.
To everyone, it seems that Ben Arfa is going to PSG. (arsenalinsider.co.uk)
I know this has nothing to do with the article but, JS, what do you think of Rui Fonte? I’ve never seen him play and this site hardly ever refers to him
It would not surprise me if the Nasri deal would collapse. Is the negotiations really sepose to take this long?????
Perhaps we should flog Van Persie and buy Benzema this fellow is a serious striker and does not spend three quaters of the season on the treatment table plus Van Persie is starting to mouth off
this is football manager eoin, get a grip
*isnt
van Persie has already signalled his intent to sign a new, improved deal at the club. There is no chance of him leaving.
Fair enough What about Mark Noble to replace Flamini cheap and English and more then capable of doing the the required job. Van Persie is a superb talent but the injuries are starting to build up and is it worth paying these wages for him while he spends most of the time on the treatment table
According to Wikipedia, Nasri signed for Arsenal on 31 May!!! (yesterday)… Hmmm… Was it just a rumour?
http://blogs.notw.co.uk/sport/2008/06/wenger-wants-tr.html
WE MAYBE SIGN THIS GUY FROM HAMBURGG.
Yes, why not sign Sidwell? He is English.
Erm first of all Why would we buy trochowsi or wateva his name was as a replacement for flamini like it said in the article. Isn’t Trochowski a Winger???
I still wont believe Nasri is ours until i see it announced, i have faith in this site but its just my personal tendancy to pessamissm i guess, in my defence it means you dont get dissapointed so much.
Benzema doesnt want to play in England, he said so when Utd were repotedly contemplating trying a summer bid gfor him. He is a quality player though and its going to be an enjoyable experiance watching him grow as a player what ever club he ends up in.
Noble is good but i dont think hes good enough, on his day hes quality but hes far too inconsistant, hes your classic English midfeilder, heart of one match, invisable in the next. Sidwell is ok but we have better in the reserves, no point spending money on anyone unless their top quality, and Noble and Sidwell arent in my opinion, not bad but not great and they’d cost 10mil at least.
Trochowsi is a good player and id welcome his signing but your right hes a winger not a CM, but we need wingers, i dont think we really need CMs, we have Fabregas, Gilberto, Denilson, Diaby, Song (maybe, but i think Wenger sees him at a CB now), Randall, Landsbury, Merida and Wilshire. Yea i know they’re all young but they’re also all quality players that wont improve unless we give them a chance. Just have to look at Clichy to see you dont always have to sign a replacement for a departed player.
Finally i think its sad how little of a chance Merida and Botelho have been given, yea i know Merida diserved a rest (and probably needed one), but hes been left out unnessesarily before this season, and i dont think hes worse then anyone else they have for his position. Botelho is young and injuries have gone against him, but they always use him in the final periods of games (last 10mins etc…), but he’ll have the whole of next season to get soem more experiance, with age more on his side. Im looking forward to seeing Merida back at the club though and i hope he gets a chance next season (even if its just the carling cup).
It’s just a typical journalistic use of faulty syllogistic logic; a midfielder has just left, we are linked with a midfielder, therefore the player linked must be a replacement for the player that just left. Even Nasri was supposedly Flaminis replacement according to some of the press. Of course now that it looks like Hleb might leave he is now Hlebs replacement. It’s a combination of laziness, needing to fill column inches and just plain not understanding their subject matter that causes this. Trochowski is an attacking midfielder/winger (with a good delivery and rocket shot) I highly doubt he would be Flaminis replacement.
“Trochowsi is a good player and id welcome his signing but your right hes a winger not a CM, but we need wingers, i dont think we really need CMs, we have Fabregas, Gilberto, Denilson, Diaby, Song (maybe, but i think Wenger sees him at a CB now), Randall, Landsbury, Merida and Wilshire. Yea i know they’re all young but they’re also all quality players that wont improve unless we give them a chance. Just have to look at Clichy to see you dont always have to sign a replacement for a departed player.”
Yup i was happy when i first saw the link cos i know hes a good player but then i thought it seemed invalid and made up by poor journalism (NOTW – what else can you expect from them) cos they claimed he was our flamini replacement.
I see where you’re coming from though. We do need wingers and we don’t really need CMs, flamini was nobody last year and now look hes playing for Milan after a great season – so I think Diaby or Denilson could definately step up like he did. Personally I’d like to see Denilson with him, if you remember Derby second half them and Bendtner were creatively phenominal (then again its derby – good sign of future partnership though).
On Pedro, i don’t like the idea of our future backup to Clichy being a LM converted to LB due to his size – it just seems pointless and we’d be better off with him as a LM or not here at all. I want Pedro to succeed here but with the lack of playing time he currently has and injuries so often he would have to have one heck of a solid season in LB for them to convince me he is able enough – and not end up costing us ala Man UTD fa cup or totenham carling cup as Traore and hoyte did.
The Times has written that we are close to signing a french quartet of wonderkids, consisting of Blaise Matuidi, Dabo, Chantome and Coquelin.
I thought we had already signed Coquelin…
Also, do you know anything about the other players that they have listed like Matuidi and Dabo?
Great Blog.
I think dabo can play RB and a DCM like Diarra could (not saying playing style but just positionally). Not sure about matuidi
Dabo is overrated.
any news on nasri?i heard french squad has the afternoon off,they must report back 2morrow morning.might happen 2day then
I heard hes agreed everything and its just a matter of waiting for Marsielle to agree the price with Arsenal.
Yea i thought we had already signed Coquelin aswell…. *shrug*
The price must be agreed already, otherwise they cant talk to the player. Furthermore he has a buy out clause, so there are no reason to discuss that really. It must be some other practical stuff, but it seems odd and pretty annoying.
Of course they can talk with the player without the price has been agreed, that’s just extremley FM-dorks who think anything else. BUT, the club (Marseille) must agree that Arsenal can talk with Nasri, but the price could be decided later.
Yeah it is annoying SIGN damn u Nasri!!
when will nasri sign this is taking forever
Wenger just told RMC that Nasri will PROBABLY sign after EURO…
Wenger go FUCK OFF…by now Chelsea or Man Utd would have finilized that deal u cheap cunts!!!!!
Nasri may not sign now.
He probably wont sign now how much bs is this, why the hell dont we just sign him sounds like theres an argument over wages and im sure his wages cant b that high god damn it :@
Pingback: Arsenal’s Walcott Shines As England Romp Trinidad « [» Young Guns ! «]
Pingback: Top Posts « WordPress.com
Pingback: Arsenal’s Walcott Shines As England Defeat Trinidad « Dandiksey’s Weblog
The quotes about the French wages being higher these days was apparently in response to another question about it being more difficult to sign players from France in general. It wasn’t in relation to Nasri. The hold up there is supposedly a small legal issue that will just take a little time to iron out, nothing more.
Does anybody have the link to the interview? I would make my father listen to it,he’s from Switzerland and lived in Geneva for 5 years so he speaks French fluently. Would make it better to know EXACTLY what Wenger said.
i dont think we are gonna get nasri anymore if it is gonna happen it has to be before euro 2008.
I would just like to say I saw jay simpson yesterday in my friends area and he was doing ball skills which will make jeremy lynch look POOR BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY HE IS ABSOULTLEY AMAZING WENGER PLEASE PLAY HIM
really nice guy aswell
Pingback: 69 Squad » Blog Archive » Nasri Scouting Report & Loanees - Mérida V Pedro