France 1 - 0 England

On a day when President Sarkozy pledged an 'entente amicale' in London, dozens of footballers and thousands of fans summoned memories of centuries of conflict at the Stade de France. Unfortunately there was no glory or heroism this evening - just nintey minutes of drudgery.

Whilst Capello was meant to replace McClaren's holiday camp attitude with rigour and discipline, there has always been a hope that he would 'get us playing football'. England failed on both counts this evening, never looking comfortable against an attack that was strong but sans Henry, and hardly threatening the French defences at all.

In the first half we played pretty well. The 4-2-3-1 (2008's 4-3-3?) allowed us to dominate possession in the French half - something previous English teams would never have done. As well as we were passing the ball, we only had two Gerrard headers as attempts on goal. Going in 1-0 down at half time, Capello decided to take off Gerrard, Joe Cole and Rooney for Crouch, Owen and Downing. 4-2-3-1 became what Mike Bassett called 'four-four-fucking-two'.

What was Capello trying to prove? That a team stripped of its best attackers attacks less well? Maybe it was just a joke: with a front six of Downing, Barry, Hargreaves, Beckham, Crouch and Owen it played like a tasteless parody of the worst of Eriksson or McClaren's England. Or a warning? Perhaps Capello was reminding us that this was what it used to be like, and could be again if he chose. There is a useful cautionary tale here for City. Two goals in five games have given rise to criticism of Sven's 4-5-1 possession football. If only we could play two up front! Why can't we move the ball forward a bit quicker!? If long balls to Benjani are the alternative, I'm happy to stick with Hamann and Irelands' sideways passing.

PS Tonight did not suggest that signing Michael Owen would put 'bums on seats'.