Uruguay 0 France 0

Malouda, whose 15 goals in all competitions proved influential in Chelsea’s double success last season, was reportedly axed by Domenech following a row in training on Thursday.

The midfielder, apparently unimpressed at plans for him to play a defensive role behind the Bordeaux playmaker Yoann Gourcuff, ended training with Domenech urging captain Patrice Evra to issue a warning over his ‘aggression’ on the practice pitch.

But with Uruguay, reduced to 10 men following the second-half dismissal of substitute Nicolas Lodeiro following a dangerous challenge on Bacary Sagna, frustrating the French, Domenech insisted he had no regrets over his surprise decision to omit Malouda.

Domenech said: “There are 23 players and they are all involved, but I made a choice tonight and Malouda didn’t disappoint me with what he did when he came on.

“In the final 15 minutes, we saw a good performance from him. A player that I bring onto the pitch 15 minutes before the end is one I bring on because I believe he will contribute something.

“But there are 23 players and that’s all that concerns for me. I don’t have anything to say about anything else.”

As a man who has previously confessed to allowing his teams selections to be influenced by astrology – with Robert Pires paying the price for being a Scorpio – it is perhaps no surprise that Domenech has been battling to suppress rumbling discord within his squad.

Rumours emanating from their Knysna base suggested that senior players were bent on forcing Domenech to include Thierry Henry in his starting line-up, while the coach continued to face criticism after omitting Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema from his squad in favour of the former Liverpool forward Djibril Cisse.

Domenech is stubbornly single-minded, but dropping a player who enjoyed the best campaign of his career last term in favour Abou Diaby, a defensive midfielder, was a strange move against opponents whose game is based around negating the opposition.

France dominated possession in the first-half, though, with winger Franck Ribery making easy work of the Uruguay right-back Mauricio Victorino.

Only Sidney Govou will know how he failed to hit the target from six-yards after Ribery had crossed following a waltz past his marker.

Uruguay are clearly no longer the force that saw the tiny South American nation lift the World Cup in 1930 and 1950, but Diego Forlan at least displayed some world-class.

The 31-year-old is a wholly different player from the youngster who almost sank without trace at Manchester United. Whenever he received the ball, he had more time and space than any of his team-mates, but they were simply not on his wavelength.

The last time these two countries met in the World Cup, they played out a dismal 0-0 draw in Busan in 2002 prior to both being eliminated at the group stage.

And as they continued to toil away at the start of the second-half, the prospect of another stalemate grew with every poor pass or bad touch.

Too many players on the French side were failing to justify their lofty reputations. Ribery started brightly but faded, while Nicolas Anelka, Jeremy Toulalan and Gourcuff could not even claim that dubious distinction.

France were in need of a helping hand from the bench, but Henry continued to be overlooked by Domenech and Anelka was left to plough on in his lone forward role.

But for Forlan shooting wide from 12 yards on 73 minutes after being teed up by Luis Suarez, La Celeste could have emerged with the victory that would have taken them to the top of the group.

With a clash against the hosts South Africa next up for Uruguay, however, coach Oscar Tabarez conceded that his team must claim a victory in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Tabarez said: “Once we had the player sent off, our priority was just to see out the game and make sure we came away with a point.

“But with all the teams in the group drawing today, we know that we now have to win our next game against South Africa.”

The French simply have to find their way to goal and heal the rifts within the camp, but the former might be more straightforward than the latter.

Domenech said: “We didn’t finish as well as we should have done, so it’s frustrating not to have won the match.

“I need to think about my team, but we need to take stock and take our time.”