France coach Raymond Domenech suffered another blow to his authority here on Tuesday as Nigeria beat France 1-0 in an international friendly.
Joseph Akpala scored the only goal of the game, the 22-year-old Club Brugge striker scoring in the 32nd minute after Ikechukwu Uche’s shot had come off the bar and hit French goalkeeper Steve Mandanda’s heel.
The crowd reacted furiously to the goal and started jeering and booing the French side, who had welcomed back from the international wilderness captain Patrick Vieira and Chelsea’s Florent Malouda.
However, neither shone with Vieira especially static in midfield on what was a sad 107th appearance for the former Arsenal star.
The hosts failed to rouse their supporters and it took fully an hour for them to even summon up ‘Allez les Bleus’ (Come on the Blues) as with the exception of Franck Ribery and Nicolas Anelka few of the other players shone.
Debutant Loic Remy went closest to levelling the match as the Nice striker’s shot hit the post two minutes from the end.
Domenech was never going to be warmly received in St Etienne as he used to play for their bitter historical rivals Lyon.
Indeed when their names were announced over the public address system Domenech and present and past players of Lyon were greeted with jeers and boos from the spectators – and interest in the national side has slid so much that the ground was only two thirds full.
However, there was a better sense of decorum as the crowd fell silent for a minute’s silence out of respect for the 228 passengers and crew of the Air France flight that disappeared on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Monday.
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France play a second friendly against Euro 2008 semi-finalists Turkey on Friday.
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