Laurent Blanc refused to press the panic button despite seeing France fall to a dispiriting 1-0 defeat at home to Belarus in their opening Euro 2012 qualifier here Friday. With a number of key players unavailable, France struggled to prise open the Belarusian defense and was beaten by an 86th-minute goal from substitute Sergei Kislyak. It was a bitterly disappointing result for Blanc, who was overseeing his first competitive match since taking over from Raymond Domenech after the World Cup, but he insisted he was not worried. “No, I'd looked at the number of caps and the number of goals my players had,” said Blanc, whose team travels to play Bosnia-Herzegovina Tuesday. “We didn't have Karim Benzema (injured), our best goalscorer. We didn't have people who are used to scoring goals for France. “We'll have to help them to digest this before we go to Bosnia, where a difficult match awaits us,” added Blanc, whose side left the pitch to the familiar sound of jeers from the home fans. The hosts largely controlled the game but there was a palpable lack of creativity in attacking areas that frustrated Blanc's hopes of banishing memories of the World Cup debacle with a rousing performance. With key creative players Yoann Gourcuff, Franck Ribery and Samir Nasri either suspended or injured, Blanc opted for a 4-4-2 system and handed the captain's armband to Chelsea winger Florent Malouda for the first time. First casualty It took the 2012 African Nations Cup qualifying competition less than 24 hours to claim its first coaching victim with Rabah Saadane quitting after Algeria was held at home by Tanzania. This was the fifth and surely last time the silver haired handler will leave the ‘Desert Foxes' after surpassing expectations last year by guiding them to the 2010 World Cup at the expense of fierce rival Egypt. Saadane hinted some time ago that the pressures was getting to him and after watching Algeria come from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw with traditional poor traveler Tanzania Friday he announced his exit the following day. Tanzania was not the only team to spring a surprise with international unknown Jose Luis Mendes scoring 14 minutes from full-time to give Guinea Bissau a shock 1-0 home victory over Kenya. Cape Verde Islands have never played at the biennial showcase of African football and it got off to a satisfactory start by edging Mali 1-0 in Praia, courtesy of a late first half goal from Fernando Varela. While a Uganda win at home to Angola was not unexpected, the 3-0 Kampala winning margin on a wet, muddy Mandela Stadium pitch was as David Obua, Andy Mwesigwa and Geoffrey Sserunkuma scored. Other matches delivered predictable results with Ivory Coast, always among the title favorites, and South Africa winning comfortably at home and World Cup flops Cameroon away. English Premier League trio Yaya Toure of Manchester City, Salomon Kalou of Chelsea and Emmanuel Eboue of Arsenal scored the goals that saw the Ivorian Elephants trample Rwanda 3-0 in Abidjan. Early and late first-half goals from strikers Katlego Mphela and Bernard Parker earned wasteful South Africa a 2-0 win over Niger in north-east city Nelspruit where Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar sparkled. Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto'o scored a brace for the second international in a row as Cameroon triumphed 3-1 over Mauritius to give high-profile Spanish coach Javier Clemente the perfect start. Botswana, surprise pacesetters in the only five-team group, boosted chances of a first Nations Cup appearance with a dramatic 2-1 home win against Togo as Jerome Ramatlhakwane snatched the late winner.
