Patrick Vieira: 'French attack will be too much for England'

Former French international Patrick Vieira is adamant that France have the attacking ability to punish England.

The Three Lions meet Les Bleus on Monday at Euro 2012, with the English defence looking weaker after Gary Cahill was ruled out of the tournament.

However, Vieira believes that despite their defensive absentees, France have the strength going forward to hurt England.

"It will be really interesting as England have lost so many players. France are really strong going forward but at the back they may be a little bit weak because they lost Eric Abidal and Bacary Sagna.

"When you look at the players up front like Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri, Franck Ribery and Jeremy Menez, they can create chances to score.

"Overall they are very good in one-on-one situations and they are mobile players, so they have the ability to go past players and they will give problems to the England back four, so this is the strength of the French side."

The two nations are joined in Group D by Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine.