The French national team is finally looking ahead after they managed to convincingly beat Germany in the recent friendly between the two sides.

France has been under a major cloud of doubt ever since the Euro 2008, but it was largely due to the manager Raymond Domenech.

Even after the sacking of Domenech following the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the emergence of France once again as a major football nation was under doubt. However, new France manager Laurent Blanc has been doing a major surgery within the team since taking over. Even though results have not been impressive up until now, it finally seems that Laurent Blanc is ready to take his team to the Euro 2012.

France were playing Germany as part of the preparations for the Euro 2012. They managed to stun the side that performed so well in the last three major international tournaments by beating them 2-1. France have been one of the major underperforming teams at both the last two major international tournaments – Euro 2008 and 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, the 2-1 win over Germany showed that France were far from being ousted as one of the top teams in the world.

Olivier Giroud and Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda scored in the match to give France a well deserved win. This win now means that France have now gone 18 matches without defeat, as they look to perform well at the Euro 2012. “We knew that Germany were very strong offensively but we had studied a few weaknesses in the defence. I fully enjoyed this game because it was two countries playing attacking football and of course my pleasure was ten-fold because we won. We had good chances, we saw goals and that was great,” Laurent Blanc told reporters after the match.