St Etienne, France, June 21: Captain Robert Pires called on fans to be lenient with France's reshuffled team after they struggled to a 2-1 Confederations Cup win over Japan.
The holders reached the semi-finals from group a after a Pires penalty was cancelled out by Shunsuke Nakamura and Sidney Govou hit a 66th minute winner yesterday.
''I think you have to be indulgent with France tonight because the team had a new face, with new players,'' Pires told reporters after Japan missed out on a deserved draw. ''It's the first time we've played together so you can't expect the world.

''The most important thing was to quickly get into the rhythm of the competition, given that most of the players had been on holiday for three or four weeks -- which they'd needed.''
France are without midfielders Zinedine Zidane, Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira, plus striker David Trezeguet, while coach Jacques Santini made 10 changes from the side who beat Colombia 1-0 in their opener.



Summing up the mood, Pires said: ''We suffered tonight but we won and qualified for the semi-finals and that was the objective for the group phase.''



As for the captaincy, in place of a rested Marcel Desailly, Pires said: ''I'm proud and flattered. I never imagined that one day I would be captain of France.''



Japan coach Zico said: ''I was confident of winning today. We played 90 minutes of good football and we never gave up.''



A disappointed Japan skipper Hidetoshi Nakata said: ''It's a shame, we could have got at least a draw.



''We created a few chances, and I missed one of them, while they did what they had to do. They were a bit more mature.''



Looking ahead to Sunday's clash with Colombia, which will decide who joins France in the semi-finals of the eight-nation tournament, he said: ''It will be a very difficult game.''



France's final group match will be against New Zealand, beaten in both their previous games.


Bureau Report