Blanc drops 23 WC players in new French team

Paris, Aug 5: Laurent Blanc, new French football team coach, announced the new squad of fresh players for a friendly match against Norway on Wednesday, Aug 11.

Laurent Blanc dropped all 23 World Cup players and recalled Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri and Philippe Mexes to the 22-man squad for the friendly match.

The former Bordeaux coach, Blanc, took over as the coach from Raymond Domenech after France's controversial World Cup campaign, which ended in a premature first round exit following the players' controversial decision to strike.

Seven players in the list were entirely new faces for France.

The new coach's first real challenge will be to steer team successfully through qualifying for the 2012 European Championships. The first match is against Belarus on Sep 3.

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