France braced for Lithuania double jeopardy

France, marshalled by an in-form Thierry Henry, put their World Cup qualifying lives on the line in back-to-back games against Lithuania over the next five days.

Coach Raymond Domenech is looking for a maximum harvest of points from Saturday’s trip to Kaunus and Wednesday’s return at the Stade de France.

And a quick look at Group Seven explains why, with the 1998 World Cup winners and 2006 finalists trailing co-leaders Serbia and Lithuania in third place and by five points although the French have a game in hand.

Henry is France’s leading scorer and his buoyant form for Barcelona this season makes him the key man in attack in the absence of the injured Nicolas Anelka.

The influential Chelsea forward was ruled out of contention at the start of the week with a toe injury, while another striker, Rennes novice Jimmy Briand, is also a non-starter after picking up a knee injury in training on Wednesday.

Henry aside, the relative inexperience of France’s forwards is mirrored in defence with Willy Sagnol and Lilian Thuram retired and Eric Abidal injured.

Domenech, who must also contend with an injury concern surrounding novice Andre Pierre Gignac of Toulouse, is in no doubt over the former Arsenal star’s importance.

“We can’t say that we are at our best at the moment, except for ‘Titi’, who is sensational,” said the coach who has been under attack since France crashed out of Euro 2008.

Domenech, asked about tactics for Saturday’s qualifier, was his usual guarded safe.

“I have lots of ideas, I have lots of options,” he said. “If there are no more problems, it will be a system with one striker and three attacking midfielders behind, or two strikers.

“But with ‘Titi’ (Henry), we can use him anywhere, except as a right wing, where even he doesn’t feel comfortable.”

Despite the positive showing of number two keeper Hugo Lloris, Domenech did reveal that for stability and continuity’s sake he planned to stick with his top stopper Steve Mandanda, who turns 24 on Saturday,

Manchester United left-back Patrice Evra spelled out precisely what was at stake in the Lithuania double header.

“A good result from the two matches would be six points. I like to feel pressure to win, even if Lithuania are top of the group, but we respect them.”

He said he wasn’t about to contemplate the unthinkable of France not making it to South Africa next year.

“We are not ready to think about that, but it is important not to allow teams to get too far ahead of us which would then make it difficult. For us to be comfortable, we need to win these two matches.”

Waiting for France in Kaunus is a Lithuania side set to feature Deividas Cesnauskis, the Hearts midfielder, and Tomas Danilevicius, who plays his club football in Italy with Livorno and is the only out and out striker in the squad.

But fellow Serie A player Marius Stankevicius, the Sampdoria defender, is injured and will miss both qualifiers.

Evra meanwhile took a swipe at those French supporters who have taken to whistling their national side.

“It is really unbelievable. You get the impression that sometimes it would be better if we told the public to stay at home and not come and support the players,” Evra said.

“We have already spoken about it amongst the players. You come onto the pitch and get whistled already. You have to ask the public, maybe they don’t like football.”