France advances

Host defeats Japan 2-1, qualifies for semifinals

SAINT-ETIENNE, France (AP) -- Sidney Govou's 65th-minute goal Friday gave France a 2-1 win against Japan and assured the host nation a spot in the Confederations Cup semifinals.

For the decider, the Olympique Lyon striker took a pass from Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre just a few meters (yards) out, turned and fired past goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki with several defenders draped over him.

With six points, France is assured of a top-two finish in Group A.

Japan is tied with Colombia, a 3-1 winner against New Zealand on Friday, for second place with three points. Those two teams will play for the group's other semifinal berth on Sunday.

Italy-based midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura had drawn Japan even on a spectacular free kick in the 59th, his third goal in two matches.

France took its first lead on a 43rd-minute penalty by Robert Pires.

"Les Bleus" ended the match with only 10 men after Bayern Munich defender Willy Sagnol was sent off for a rough tackle a few minutes from time.

Like its 1-0 win against Colombia on Wednesday, France was outplayed for long stretches. But the end results are what counts, French captain Robert Pires said.

"We are qualified and that was our goal," he said. "Two matches, two victories and we are in Paris for the next match."

Govou's goal made French coach Jacques Santini's major lineup changes seem like a good move.

Trying to gain some rest for his team in a tournament with only one day off between matches, Santini started with such stars as Thierry Henry, Bixente Lizarazu, Marcel Desailly, Sylvain Wiltord and Lilian Thuram on the bench.

The capacity crowd of 36,000 at Geoffroy-Guichard stadium chanted for "Henry" all night and when the talented Arsenal striker entered in the 79th minute, the announcer did not even have to announce his last name -- the fans took care of that.

Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez and midfielder Pires returned as starters for France.

In contrast, Japan's Brazilian coach Zico kept with the same starting lineup from his squad's 3-0 win against New Zealand on Wednesday.

"These are the players I have, and that's all I can put on the field," Zico said. "We didn't deserve to lose to this team. We had so many scoring opportunities."

France can be expected to rest even more players against tournament underdog New Zealand in its last -- and largely meaningless -- group-phase match on Sunday at the Stade de France just outside Paris. Japan will play Colombia simultaneously in Saint-Etienne.

"We'll approach it just like we approached the game tonight," Nakamura said of the Colombia match. "We want to play Japanese soccer and win with Japanese soccer."

Asked about his goal, which bounced in off the post from 28 meters (yards), Nakamura said it was "exactly the way I wanted to score it."

Lineups:

France -- Fabien Barthez; Jean-Alain Boumsong, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre, Willy Sagnol; Olivier Dacourt (Benoit Pedretti, 57th), Robert Pires, Jerome Rothen (Sylvain Wiltord, 66th), Ousmane Dabo; Steve Marlet (Thierry Henry, 80th), Sidney Govou.

Japan -- Seigo Narazaki; Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Keisuke Tsuboi, Nobuhisa Yamada; Junichi Inamoto (Koji Nakata, 73rd), Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura (Mitsuo Ogasawara, 80th), Alessandro Santos, Yasuhito Endo; Yoshito Okubo, Naohiro Takahara.

Referee -- Mark Shield, Austria.

 

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