Gallas fires victory volley at Irish

Chelsea defender William Gallas is confident France will take a giant step towards World Cup qualification with victories against the Faroe Islands and the Republic of Ireland over the next week.

Les Bleus lie fourth in Group Four and desperately need six points from the clashes with the Faroes in Lens on Saturday and the trip to Dublin four days later.

The Irish top the standings and Gallas knows next Wednesday's game at Lansdowne Road is particularly important to their hopes of reaching Germany next summer.

He said: “Winning in Ireland is perfectly possible, even if we will probably suffer for 90 minutes. But I am confident we can do it.

"On the other hand it would not be such a great achievement to win there. As I said we will suffer, but we'll do it."

France coach Raymond Domenech is a fan of Ireland's combative style and is
wary of not getting into a physical scrap.

He said: “We should not reduce the Irish game to a physical game. The Irish are obviously big strong guys but they also have a good game and quality.”

“We will not be able to make any mistakes in these two qualifiers. We are in a cup situation, the matches we are about to play are must-wins and that's exciting. The prime objective is to win them all. In two months' time we will know.”