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Fri 11 Nov 2009French players insist they just need to trust in themselves
AS THE French squad prepared for their final training session at Clairefontaine yesterday before travelling to Dublin, the unhurried, secluded calm of the vast football academy in the countryside south of Paris couldn’t have made all the talk of cauldrons and warriors sound more incongruous.
The French are expecting a fight. As the golf buggies chugged past and the wind whistled through the trees outside the marquee where more than 100 journalists had intruded on the peace, four players took turns to riff on the same theme. The Irish will bring their team spirit, their tenacity, their fight and their 80,000 hollering fans. The French will bring better players.
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