Football World Cup 1998 / France

This article covers the French national team at the 1998 World Cup .

qualification

As the host, France, which hosted this tournament for the second time since 1938 , automatically qualified for the finals. In the preparatory games of the World Cup year, the Équipe tricolore was hardly able to convince:

• January 28, 1998 (Saint-Denis, inauguration of the Stade de France) against Spain 1-0
• February 25, 1998 (Marseille) against Norway 3-3
• March 25, 1998 (Moscow) against Russia 0-1
• April 22, 1998 (Solna) against Sweden 0-0
• May 27, 1998 (Casablanca, King Hassan II Cup) against Belgium 1-0
• May 29, 1998 (Casablanca) against Morocco 2-2 and 5-6 on penalties
• June 5, 1998 (Helsinki) against Finland 1-0

French contingent

In the weeks leading up to the finals, criticism of national coach Aimé Jacquet increased. His line-ups, the selection of opponents to prepare for the preparation, the fact that the national team played predominantly outside of France - the closer the opening game got, the more hysterical the barrage against him and also did not stop at personal attacks: he was just a provincial coach who participated the high-paid stars of Bleus in general could not avoid, some of them (like Cantona and Ginola ) actually pissed off, without a clue of the strategy and tactics of modern football and as a person too colorless.

One of his most controversial decisions was the nomination of 28 players by the last possible time. This was actually not unusual, but it shows the problems that the published opinion in particular had with this sélectionneur in the run-up to the final round . At the final reporting date, Jacquet then deleted Nicolas Anelka ( Arsenal FC ), Ibrahim Ba ( AC Milan ), Martin Djetou ( AS Monaco ), Pierre Laigle ( Sampdoria Genoa ), Sabri Lamouchi ( AJ Auxerre ) and Lionel Letizi ( FC Metz ) from the squad .

The fact that after the World Cup some of the same journalists did not want to know anything about their previous role, praised Jacquet for the green clover and agreed to choose him as France's “Coach of the Century” - which is definitely debatable - points to problems of the media, which are also not unknown in other European countries. In any case, Aimé Jacquet went the way he saw fit, and success proved him right.

number	Surname	Association at the time	birthday	Games	Gates	Space management
goalkeeper
16	Fabien Barthez	AS Monaco	06/28/1971	7th	0	0
22nd	Lionel Charbonnier	AJ Auxerre	10/25/1966	0	0	0
1	Bernard Lama	West Ham United	04/07/1963	0	0	0
Defense
5	Laurent Blanc	Olympique Marseille	11/19/1965	5	1	1
2	Vincent Candela	AS Roma	October 24, 1973	1	0	0
8th	Marcel Desailly	AC Milan	07.09.1968	7th	0	1
18th	Frank Lebœuf	Chelsea FC	01/22/1968	3	0	0
3	Bixente Lizarazu	FC Bayern Munich	December 9, 1969	6th	1	0
15th	Lilian Thuram	AC Parma	01/01/1972	6th	2	0
midfield
14th	Alain Boghossian	Sampdoria Genoa	October 27, 1970	5	0	0
7th	Didier Deschamps	Juventus Turin	10/15/1968	6th	0	0
13	Bernard Diomède	AJ Auxerre	01/23/1974	3	0	0
6th	Youri Djorkaeff	Inter Milan	03/09/1968	7th	1	0
19th	Christian Karembeu	real Madrid	December 3rd, 1970	4th	0	0
17th	Emmanuel Petit	Arsenal FC	09/22/1970	6th	2	0
11	Robert Pires	FC Metz	October 29, 1973	3	0	0
4th	Patrick Vieira	Arsenal FC	06/23/1976	2	0	0
10	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus Turin	06/23/1972	5	2	1
attack
21st	Christophe Dugarry	Olympique Marseille	March 24, 1972	3	1	0
9	Stéphane Guivarc'h	AJ Auxerre	09/06/1970	6th	0	0
12	Thierry Henry	AS Monaco	08/17/1977	6th	3	0
20th	David Trezeguet	AS Monaco	10/15/1977	6th	1	0
Trainer
	Aimé Jacquet		11/27/1941

French team games

Preliminary round

France played in Group C with South Africa, Denmark and Saudi Arabia.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	France	9: 1	9
2	Denmark	3: 3	4th
3	South Africa	3: 6	2
4th	Saudi Arabia	2: 7	1

France	-	South Africa	3: 0 (1: 0)
France	-	Saudi Arabia	4: 0 (1: 0)
France	-	Denmark	2: 1 (1: 1)

Match reports

Against South Africa on June 12, 1998 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille in front of 55,075 spectators; SR: Rezende de Freitas (Brazil):

1-0 Dugarry (34th) - 2-0 Issa (77th, ET), 3-0 Henry (90th)

Against Saudi Arabia on June 18, 1998 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis in front of 80,000 spectators; SR: Brizio Carter (Mexico):

1-0 Henry (36th) - 2-0 Trezeguet (68th), 3-0 Henry (77th), 4-0 Lizarazu (85th); Expulsion: Zidane (70.)

Against Denmark on June 24, 1998 in the Stade Gerland in Lyons in front of 44,000 spectators; SR: Collina (Italy):

1: 0 Djorkaeff (12th, FE), 1: 1 M. Laudrup (42nd, FE) - 2: 1 Petit (56th)

Round of 16

France - Paraguay 1-0 (0-0, 0-0) after a golden goal  

On June 28, 1998 at the Stade Félix-Bollaert in Lens in front of 42,000 spectators; SR: Bujsaim (United Arab Emirates):

1: 0 Blanc (114.)

Quarter finals

France - Italy 0: 0 aet, 4: 3 i. E.  

On July 3, 1998 in the Stade de France of Saint-Denis in front of 77,000 spectators; SR: Dallas (Scotland):

Penalty takers: for France Zidane, Lizarazu (missed), Trezeguet, Henry, Blanc; for Italy R. Baggio , Albertini (missed), Costacurta, Vieri , Di Bagio (missed)

Semifinals

France - Croatia 2: 1 (0: 0)  

On July 8, 1998 in the Stade de France of Saint-Denis in front of 80,000 spectators; SR: García Aranda (Spain):

0: 1 Šuker (46th), 1: 1 Thuram (47th), 2: 1 Thuram (69th); Expulsion: Blanc (74.)

Endgame

France - Brazil 3: 0 (2: 0)  

On July 12, 1998 in the Stade de France of Saint-Denis in front of 75,000 spectators; SR: Belqola (Morocco):

1-0 Zidane (27th), 2-0 Zidane (45th) - 3-0 Petit (90th); Expulsion: Desailly (68.)

France played with Barthez - Thuram, Lebœuf, Desailly, Lizarazu - Djorkaeff (from 70th Vieira ) , Deschamps, Zidane, Petit, Karembeu (from 57th Boghossian ) - Guivarc'h (from 66th Dugarry )

Conclusion

68 years after their first World Cup participation and 40 years after their third place at the World Cup in Sweden , the Équipe tricolore succeeded in winning the long-awaited title. The film "Les Yeux dans les Bleus" (Eng. "The view of the blues" ), which documents this success longed for by an entire nation, naturally became a cult film in France. The most famous scene in it: the kiss of French President Jacques Chirac on the "divine bald head" of goalkeeper Barthez after the World Cup final, who took up the gesture introduced by Laurent Blanc, who was suspended in the final.

Literature and web links

• Page of the FFF (French)
• FIFA World Cup (German)