Laurent Blanc's first competitive match as France coach ended in a shock 1-0 defeat to Belarus in Paris which deals an early blow to their Euro 2012 qualifying bid.
Sergey Kisliak scored the only goal four minutes from time to punish France, who failed to capitalise after dominating possession.
Blanc retained six of the shadow side who lost to Norway in a friendly last month, with Patrice Evra and Franck Ribery among the players unavailable due to suspension as a result of the dispute between the players and team management during Les Bleus' disastrous World Cup campaign this summer.
"We're in a difficult situation and we need to fight, which is exactly what we will do," Blanc said after the game.
Blanc knows, however, that he has a problem in that very few players in his squad can score goals.
"You have to face the fact that the best two scorers in our team (against Belarus), Malouda and (Louis) Saha, had scored just four (international) goals," he said. "You can't say that we have players who know how to score goals."
France play their second Group D match against Bosnia in Sarajevo.
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