France Vs. England: Teams Share Spoils After 1-1 Draw

Zidane retired right around the time that Vieira and Makelele started to decline physically. Raymond Domenech didn’t know what to do with his midfield when the trio was broken up, and France was embarrassing at both Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.

This isn’t the only reason why France have gone 22 games without defeat under Blanc, however. While the changes that Blanc has made in midfield might not be quite as important as the changes he’s made in the dressing room, they’ve had a very obvious impact on the team.

When you see him play for England, it’s incredible to think that Manchester City paid almost £30M for the now 26-year-old’s services at the beginning of the 2010/11 season. Because what you see is a winger who works hard, makes sensible passes, has good defensive awareness and can tackle - useful skills, obviously. Notably conspicuous from that skillset is running fast, beating players and scoring goals.

This all comes down, really, to the perception that Milner is a wide player first. It’s how City have tended to use him, and it’s how England have too. If you don’t see Milner as a midfielder at all, playing Gerrard deep makes some sense, especially with England’s centre so badly hit by injuries. But as soon as you remember the box-to-boxer that served as the engine for O’Neill’s Aston Villa, you have to wonder whether the world has gone very slightly mad.

*Probably not ‘doing a Liverpool’, though, which is slightly ironic considering the tiresome twitter jokes that have been floating around over the makeup of this England squad.

And also England are not very good.

It’s rare in football that the basic box score tells most of the story of a match, but this one is an exception. England had just five attempts on goal and one shot on target, indicating just how little they did going forward. France had 21 shots, but only hit the target seven times, correctly indicating that a lot of their efforts on goal were merely speculative.

One thing that the box score missed was the officiating, however. The match was a very physical one that was loaded with bookable offenses -- both fouls and dives -- but Rizzoli was extremely lenient. No France players were booked and a total of just 16 fouls were called. On the evidence of this match, Rizzoli’s probably not a great candidate to officiate knockout stage matches. There’s an argument made for letting the boys play, but in this case, his unwillingness to call fouls detracted from the match.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

Update: England 1-1 France, Final Score

Just four minutes later, France found their equalizer through Nasri. On a well-worked short set piece routine, the ball ended up on the edge of the penalty area at the feet of Ribery, who teed up Nasri for a shot. He unleashed a low drive at Hart’s near post that found its way through a good deal of traffic. Hart spotted the ball late because of the players in front of him and couldn’t react in time as it whizzed by him and into the back of the net.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

We have live coverage in our France vs. England, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

France (4-3-3): Lloris; Evra, Mexes, Rami, Debuchy; Malouda, Diarra, Cabaye; Ribery, Benzema, Nasri

England (4-2-3-1): Hart; Cole, Lescott, Terry, Johnson; Parker, Gerrard; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Young, Milner; Welbeck

Lines: England, pick ‘em (+125). France, pick ‘em (-145).

Odds: England, +220. France, +130. Draw, +210.

NO IT WON’T. And this is the problem with England. They haven’t been a significant force at a major tournament since the 1990s, where they reached the semifinals of both the 1990 World Cup and Euro 1996 (the latter on home soil). The English are lion-hearted warriors, to be sure, but they’re also by and large technically incompetent with an astonishing ability to alienate their best players and implode on a moment’s notice.

In other words, England are absolutely, totally and 100 percent screwed.