France missed a chance to take control of Euro 2012 qualifying Group D after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Belarus on Friday.
Laurent Blanc s France came into the match in Minsk top of the group, four points ahead of second-placed Belarus.
Victory at Dynamo Stadium would have blown the lead out to eight points and with four matches of the qualification remaining put France within touching distance of a place in next year s finals.
But they made hard work of the match from start to finish and proved unable to avenge a 1-0 home defeat in the first meeting between the teams in September last year.
It has been an inspiring end to the season for Eric Abidal, who overcame a cancer scare to be given the honour of lifting the Champions League trophy for Barcelona after their 3-1 win over Manchester United at Wembley in May.
But the full-back was brought back to reality on Friday when, under pressure from BATE Borisov s Maksim Bordachev, he conceded an own-goal to put France behind 20 minutes into the match.
Chelsea winger Florent Malouda spared his former Lyon teammate s blushes with the equaliser just two minutes later.
Malouda was played in by fellow ex-Lyon man Karim Benzema, but it would prove to be the Real Madrid striker s only worthwhile contribution of the night as France struggled to threaten the home side.
While hardly a disaster, the lacklustre draw keeps France four points clear of Belarus and five ahead of third-placed Romania, with work yet to do if they are to secure passage to the Ukraine and Poland.
It was a disappointing match, especially in the first half. We lacked a bit of freshness I don’t think we deserved to win tonight, Blanc said.
They ve taken four points off us in two matches and that s a lot yet they are not a better team than us. We came for three points and we didn t get them.
