Tame draw for France against Georgia

TBILISI: A lacklustre display from France effectively ended their hopes of automatically qualifying for next year's World Cup in Brazil as they were held to an uninspiring 0-0 draw in Georgia on Friday.

The stalemate left France without a goal in five matches and three points behind leaders Spain in Group I after the defending world champions beat Finland 2-0 in Helsinki.

Spain now have 14 points from six matches with just fixtures at home to Belarus and Georgia to come, leaving France, who still have Belarus and Finland to play, staring at a second-place finish that should consign them to a play-off.

France coach Didier Deschamps opted for a two-man attack with in-form Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud partnering the misfiring Benzema, who last scored for his country in a pre-Euro 2012 friendly against Estonia.
Newcastle United midfielder Moussa Sissoko was also drafted in to replace the injured Geoffrey Kondogbia and play alongside new Atletico Madrid signing Josuha Guilavogui with Paul Pogba, Yohan Cabaye and Blaise Matuidi all suspended.

Having failed to score since beating Georgia 3-1 in the corresponding fixture in Paris back in March, France were again very much subdued in the first half in Tbilisi.

European footballer of the year Franck Ribery dragged a shot wide of the near post after cutting in from his favoured position on the left wing, while Benzema drew an unconvincing stop out of an otherwise untroubled home goalkeeper Giorgi Loria.

Georgia's Tornike Okriashvili saw a deflected long-range strike comfortably held by Hugo Lloris, but France were given a real scare as the midfielder went much closer five minutes after the break.

Alexander Kobakhidze's low cross from the right picked out Okriashvili, who had his initial effort parried back towards him by Lloris before he sent the rebound against the foot of the post.

Benzema's struggles continued with the ineffective Real Madrid forward hauled off just after the hour - shortly after heading a Bacary Sagna cross well wide - and replaced by Andre-Pierre Gignac.

The ball nearly broke to the Marseille striker minutes after his introduction as Patrice Evra drilled a low ball across the face of goal that ricocheted off Gija Grigalava and Mathieu Valbuena but just out of Gignac's reach.

Giroud failed with an acrobatic attempt to redirect a wayward Evra strike on target, while Ribery stung the palms of Loria as France's frustrations grew.

The visitors almost won it late on but Loria performed stoppage-time heroics to keep out Giroud's diving header before Sagna saw his effort brilliantly clawed away by the Georgian 'keeper. (AFP)