Former France captain Zinedine Zidane is expecting Les Bleus to triumph in their World Cup play-offs with the Republic of Ireland and has called on the fans to get behind their national side.

France travel to Dublin for the first leg on Saturday, with the second match in Paris a week today as the teams compete for a place in South Africa.

“This will be particularly difficult, because it will be a fight there (in Ireland),” said Zidane. “We’ll have to resist — and after that will be the match in France. But I’m confident.

“I am confident because there is a good team there who need the backing of France. So we must all be calm and all get behind them.”

Raymond Domenech has told France’s players the pressure must come from within. Domenech has been under immense pressure following France’s poor group campaign, where they lost out to Serbia for the automatic qualifying spot.

The France coach said on www.fff.fr: “Saturday is not very far. The match is coming up little by little. I don’t want it (the pressure) to build up. The pressure — well, it’s internal. If the players don’t have it inside them, which is what I told them at the outset, it means we’re cheating ourselves, that we’ve got nothing to do here.

“It’s not worth insisting on it. There are matches which don’t need external pressure. It’s here — the players want to go to the World Cup. If they are not motivated, prepared and don’t have the desire to put themselves in the right conditions ... well, I’m sorry, there’s nothing more to add.

“They are ready. It’s not worth adding an excess of pressure.”

Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra joined up with the squad after playing in the Copa Del Rey last night, but Abou Diaby and Jeremy Toulalan are doubtful.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had ruled Diaby out of contention after he injured his calf against Wolves last weekend, but the France medical staff declared him fit to stay with the squad.

Meanwhile, France has named the 12 cities that are in contention to host matches should it win the race to host the 2016 European Championships.

Lens, Lille, St Denis, Paris, Nancy, Strasbourg, Lyon, St Etienne, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux have been chosen by the French Football Federation.

Nine cities will host matches, with the three remaining candidates serving as reserves.

Four of the selected cities - Lille, Lyon, Nice and Bordeaux - are considering building new stadiums.

All bids must be submitted by February 15th next year, with the winner to be named by Uefa on May 27th.

France, which won the competition the last time it staged it in 1984, is competing against Italy, Turkey and a joint bid from Sweden and Norway.