France coach Laurent Blanc knows his new-look and fragile team has no room for error at Bosnia-Herzegovina in Tuesday's 2012 European Championship qualifier, where a second straight defeat would put the French in an perilous position.
France slipped to an embarrassing 1-0 home loss to Belarus on Friday in a dour match. It was Blanc's first official match in charge following France's humiliating World Cup campaign under previous coach Raymond Domenech.
Blanc says France let the fans down because the nation was crying out for a win after the pitiful self-implosion in South Africa, where Domenech's team went on strike at training and meekly exited the tournament without a win.
"We needed to win to get off to a good start. Even more than that, the whole of French football needed a win," Blanc said. "But we must keep going forward. Life goes on."
Bosnia will take early control of Group D with six points if it wins, after easily beating Luxembourg 3-0 Friday.
"These qualifiers are a chance for us to be in the spotlight again. We narrowly missed out on qualifying for the World Cup when, honestly, we could have made it," Bosnia captain Emir Spahic told sports daily L'Equipe. "We respect the France team but they have to come and play in Bosnia, and it will be very tough for them."
The French players' lack of belief and confidence was clearly evident in the way they failed to create clear chances against Belarus, then was emphatically underlined when they conceded an 86th-minute goal.
Former France midfielder Emmanuel Petit shares Spahic's view that the French are fearful of losing Tuesday's match.
"They are obviously telling themselves that a defeat there will make it very hard to climb back up the hill," Petit said in his column for L'Equipe's website.
France, which has lost its last four games overall and won one of the last nine, is without three strikers after injuries to Louis Saha (right calf), Loic Remy (groin) and Guillaume Hoarau (shoulder).
But Blanc has been boosted by the news that Karim Benzema has recovered from a sore ankle.
"Physically I am fine. I am ready to fight in the France team," Benzema said Sunday. "I really want to play, I want to fight, I'm ready to make every sacrifice."
But even with Benzema back, things are likely to be harder still in Sarajevo against a team that scored all its goals inside 20 minutes against Luxembourg, and is packed with precisely the attacking flair Blanc's team sorely lacks.
"We have to pick ourselves up for Bosnia," Blanc said. "It was already an important game, and now we've already lost once, it becomes even more important. We will have decisive games right up until the end of qualifying."
Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko, valued at around ?30 million ($39 million) when Manchester City and AC Milan unsuccessfully tried to sign him in January, has 16 goals in just 27 games for Bosnia.
Dzeko's strength, touch and outstanding heading ability will hardly reassure a nervous French defense whose center-half pairing of Adil Rami and Philippe Mexes will be playing only their second game together.
Mexes, paradoxically so self-assured when he plays in Italy for AS Roma, has yet to shine for France, and he knows the team has little time to sort itself out.
"We messed up (against Belarus), but what's done is done. It's a huge blow for us," he said. "We have to get this out of our system fast and start over."
But Bosnia coach Safet Susic knows French football very well, having scored 85 league goals in 343 games during a nine-year spell with Paris Saint-Germain.
Susic may target France left back Gael Clichy early on after his limitations were exposed on Belarus' goal.
Even if France keep Dzeko quiet, the danger could come from his strike partner Vedad Ibisevic, from Lyon's gifted midfielder Miralem Pjanic - scorer of a free kick on Friday - or Galatasaray midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic.
The Montpellier center-half Spahic, coveted by Arsenal during the summer transfer window, captains Bosnia and is a scoring threat from corners, a worrying fact given France's inability to defend set pieces in recent years.
"The fact that I play in France adds something extra to this match," Spahic said.
Bosnia missed out on the World Cup after losing a playoff against Portugal. The team then showed great flair when dominating Germany during the first half of a World Cup warmup match before going on to lose 3-1.
