Blanc eyes France improvement

France coach Laurent Blanc is targeting improvement from his side when they face Germany in Bremen on Wednesday.

Blanc took over as France coach after their disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign and has led the team to a series of improved results since, including first place in Group D of qualifying for this year’s European Championships in Poland and Ukraine.

But the former Bordeaux coach admits his side’s last performance in qualifying, a 1-1 draw against Bosnia in October, fell well short of his expectations.

“Against Bosnia, we lacked in the first half many things, especially experience,” Blanc said.

“Our ability to control the game, to control the environment was really poor. As result, we had a very bad first half. We were playing with fear against a team that we outweighed 6 or 8 months ago.”

Blanc will blood several youngsters against Germany, seeking to deliver the next crop of French hopefuls with the experience required to succeed at international level.

“I am telling you, you don’t buy that international experience in the supermarket. We have many young players who have some international experience,” the 46-year-old said.

“They are playing in big clubs. They are used to playing big games. From an individual point of view, their situations did improve a lot in those big clubs.”