France did its chances of advancing from a tough Group C no favors when it drew 0-0 with Romania in a tight, tactical affair in their opening match at Euro 2008 on Monday. The 2006 World Cup runner-up, which will also face the Netherlands and world champion Italy in what is widely seen as the toughest group of the tournament, looked nervous and failed to breach a tight Romania defense. France started the match at the Letzigrund Stadium without striker Thierry Henry, who received a knock in a warm-up game, and midfielder and captain Patrick Vieira, sidelined by a thigh injury. Neither side made any headway against some very tight defending, with only one shot on target in the entire match – steered straight at Romania keeper Bogdan Lobont by France striker Karim Benzema. France coach Raymond Domenech said: “We know it is a complicated group and Romania is not there to do anybody any favors. We were nervous, we could not express ourselves fully, it's often like that in the first match. “The situation we're in now is that every match will be a knock-out round. If we play with too much caution, something will be missing at the end. There are two matches left and six points to take. I'm neither pessimistic nor optimistic.” Though his strikers fired blanks, Domenech was pleased with the untroubled time had by his goalkeeper Gregory Coupet. “The positive thing is that Greg did not have one save to make,” he said. “We managed to control the match, but we were not dangerous enough.” The first 45 minutes featured few highlights with Romania concentrating on defending and France dominating play but creating few clear chances. Nicolas Anelka, playing in place of Henry, shot just wide on nine minutes and headed the ball over the bar after the half-hour mark in two of France's few threatening moves. France had another chance on 17 minutes, Lobont rushing out to deny Florent Malouda before Anelka fired wide with an angled shot from the edge of the box. Romania also showed signs of nerves, collecting three yellow cards in the first half, but stood firm at the back to keep alive its chances of making the quarterfinals. The second half started in more promising fashion for France with Malouda twisting his way past two defenders and racing into the box to shoot just wide with an angled shot. The pressure was back on Romania when Benzema fired at Lobont after collecting a Franck Ribery cross shortly before the hour. Romania kept its cool, though, demonstrating how it had topped its qualifying group ahead of the Netherlands and showing its determination to give its group rivals a hard time. – Reuters __
