Founded 1918? Fifa 1904
John McCririck, the eccentric horse racing correspondent, bleats on about the bookies ‘ Bismarck’. What he means by a ‘Bismark’ is a horse that shrewd bookies want to take bets on because they feel that it will lose. Well France are my football ‘ Bismarck’.
My reasoning is this, no international football team have ever defended a major European Championship, the French team are over the hill and have lost their hunger to win. I know that France are rated the number one football team in the tournament, but I would not be shocked if Croatia beat them.
Previous qualification: in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1984 (Won), 1992, 1996, 2000 (Won).
| Group B | P | W | D | L | GS | GA | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| France (2) Q | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 7 | |
| England (6) Q | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 6 | |
| Croatia (20) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 2 | |
| Switzerland (45) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| (Fifa Ranking) |
| Group 1 | P | W | D | L | GS | GA | PTS | |
| France | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 2 | 24 | |
| Slovenia | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 12 | 14 | |
| Israel | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 9 | |
| Cyprus | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 8 | |
| Malta | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 24 | 1 |
Coach: Jacques Santini
Goalkeepers
Fabien Barthez
Gr?ory Coupet
Micka? Landreau
Defenders
J??ie Br?het
Vincent Candela
Philippe Christanval
Marcel Desailly
William Gallas
Bixente Lizarazu
Philippe Mexes
Anthony R?eill?e
Willy Sagnol
Mika? Silvestre
Lilian Thuram
Midfielders
Eric Carri?e
Bruno Cheyrou
Ousmane Dabo
Olivier Dacourt
Claude Makelele
Beno? Pedretti
Robert Pires
J??e Rothen
Patrick Vieira
Zinedine Zidane
Forwards
Djibril Ciss?
Ludovic Giuly
Sidney Govou
Thierry Henry
Olivier Kapo
Steve Marlet
David Trezeguet
Sylvain Wiltord
Svehlík and Dobiás both scored in the final. Victor was in goal who were they?
France
USSR
Holland
Czechoslovakia
Germany
Ξ
