Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been talking about England and France ahead of next Summer’s World Cup in Brazil.
Both countries have made it into next year’s tournament, with the French having to produce a superb turnaround to beat Ukraine in Paris.
After losing the first leg 2-0, France knew they had to win by three goals to go through, and that is exactly what they did in comfortable fashion and Wenger believes his home-country being in the tournament is good for Arsenal as he believes they will be feeling positive now.
“That is the problem of course but still, you want overall the players to be in a positive mood, to have a good self-esteem, and that of course comes by thinking you have the job done,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.
“I have a smile on my face because first it was a relief [for France] to go through. You have to give credit to Ukraine, they were unlucky, a little bit, because they got a man sent off and they conceded an offside goal. Overall you could not forget that Ukraine gave a fantastic resistance.
“It’s positive for France because it was a big relief and the country needed it.
“There is a lot of unrest between the French national team and the country, since South Africa [at the 2010 World Cup], and that they could turn a situation like that in a positive way will help people to love the national team again.”
Wenger has also been talking about England’s chances at next Summer’s competition and he believes you can never rule them out, even if they are not performing well at the moment.
“They are not favourites but it is a very open competition,” said Wenger. “To me it looks like once you are in the quarter-final, you cannot rule them out.
“To get in there, that will certainly be the most difficult thing but you have to wait a little bit for the draw and see what sort of group England will get.
“It is the same for France,” added Wenger. “The situation at the World Cup is that you have 32 teams, and 13 are from Europe. That is a little bit unbalanced but it means that any team you face in Europe, you cannot predict who will win.
“If England plays against France, or France against Holland, it is unpredictable.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
