France play guessing games

France are playing guessing games over England's team for their opening Euro 2004 match in Lisbon on June 13.

No less than nine French players, including captain Marcel Desailly, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, play in the English premier league and many will be in direct opposition to club team mates.

"France vs England matches are always special," coach Jacques Santini said on Wednesday. "But this one is going to have a particular flavour.

"Many of those who are going to start on June 13 are going to play against club mates or against guys they are used to facing on the field at the weekend," Santini said.

"So they are playing riddles. They are trying to guess who is going to be on the pitch and who is going to be on the bench."

At least five premier league players - Marcel Desailly, Claude Makelele, Vieira, Robert Pires and Henry - will be on from the opening whistle for the defending champions.

"It's going to be a tough and physical challenge," Henry said. "We learned a lot over there and we know what we can expect."

"It reminds me a little bit of the (quarter-final) France v Italy we played during the 1998 World Cup," playmaker Zinedine Zidane said. "At that time, many guys were in Serie A.

"It was important to win to stop them (the Italians) pulling our legs on our return to our clubs. I think we will try to do the same thing again."

France were drawn with England, Croatia and Switzerland in Group B.