Rate it!

1 votes

In his Eurosport-Yahoo! blog, Nicolas Anelka says a meeting with the French FA is crunch-time for coach Raymond Domenech after a 2-2 draw with Romania.

"The 2-2 qualifying draw against Romania was highly anticipated. The teams were under a lot of pressure, and especially with regards to the two coaches.

I was not on the bench for the match because my injury from the week before had not completely healed. And for a match as important as this, whoever plays in it has to be at 100 percent fitness.

So I preferred to bring it to an end this time, and also for the second match this international break, which is a friendly against Tunisia.

The match got off to a bad start - after 20 minutes we were already losing 2-0.

We had been playing with one striker, Thierry Henry, but the boss decided to bring back Karim Benzema, who had been on the bench.

And so we became more attacking. Eventually the Romanians folded - and we had already just scored with a good collective move.

In the second half, we knew that we had the qualities to come back, just to make our mark on the game and to be patient.

And we dominated. We equalised at 2-2 and we even had chances to kill the game but it never came through.

The coach knew that this match was crucial and that it was necessary for him to be confident with himself and of his team.

He was made the object of much criticism all week and we will see what the French Football Federation council will decide on Wednesday.

I have not got a particular preference. I would accept whatever decision they make.

Nicolas Anelka / Eurosport