In a French town near the Belgian border in 2012 the subject got round to Halmstads in Sweden in 1976. Lars Lagerback was doing the talking on Sunday night.

The Swedish manager of Iceland has known Roy Hodgson for decades. Lagerback is not a man to pontificate but, as someone who had just seen his team ranked 133rd in the world frustrate France for 87 minutes, Lagerback has some words of advice for England's new manager when it comes to playing Laurent Blanc's team.

Upset: Iceland took a 2-0 lead in France before Blanc's team recovered to win 3-2

Broadly, these are: defend like Chelsea, and use Theo Walcott.

Iceland were 2-0 up on France at half-time in Valenciennes. Blanc's men eventually clawed their way to a 3-2 victory due to goals from Franck Ribery and Adil Rami in the 85th and 87th minutes, but it was an unimpressive France display, one that smacked of complacency.

Blanc fielded five creative, attacking players in his line-up, with only Newcastle's Yohan Cabaye aiding the back four.
That was one reason why France were suspect defensively.

Another is that, as Lagerback noted beforehand, both France full backs, Mathieu Debuchy (who scored France's first) and Patrice Evra, surge forward continually.

« Previous123456Next »