Abidal eyes Austria boost

Eric Abidal has called on France to beat Austria on Wednesday to set their stall out ahead of a World Cup qualifying play-off.

Saturday’s 5-0 win over the Faroe Islands secured second place and a play-off place for Les Bleus in Group Seven behind Serbia, who beat Romania 5-0 to seal their ticket to South Africa.

Wednesday’s match represents a far stiffer test than the one presented by perennial qualifying minnows the Faroes, but Abidal feels his side can take confidence from their goalscoring exploits.

The Barcelona full-back told fff.fr: “Certainly, when you have matches where you have a lot of chances and can score some goals, that is good for the team and the attackers. It gives them confidence.

“We worked on things in training and it paid off, and we hope it will pay off again on Wednesday. The public were behind us, which helped us feel motivated.”

Despite having second spot already in the bag, Abidal is determined to clinch all three points to keep morale high going into the play-off.

“The match against Austria, we have to win it,” he said.

“The ultimate objective is to qualify but this match will serve as a reference point for our level of quality. Austria are stronger than the Faroes and it will be a useful test for us for the future.

“The objective is to get to the World Cup.”