Posted on: 20 September, 2013
Author: Dave Bartholomew
Despite the original trophy being named after French football administrator, Jules Rimet, the French had never won the World Cup. All that changed in 1998 with France hosting the tournament and the final held in the Stade de France, Paris in front or a partisan crowd of 75,000. After dominating European football for more than two years, France won their first and (to date) only World Cup on home soil and in some style. Architect of the victory was the peerless, Zinedine Zidane who showed outstanding technique and levels of skill throughout the tournament. In the final against Brazil, the French team came up against the Brazilian's own maestro in the shape of Ronaldo but on the day he was in disarray. Afflicted by a mystery illness on the morning of the match, the striker was initially withdrawn from the squad, only to be reinstalled 45 minutes before kick-off. France stormed the Brazilian goal from the off but the crowd had to wait until the 27th minute for a Zidane header to open the scoring with a typically powerful header. With Brazil reeling, Zidane scored again in first-half injury time to put the French two up. Brazil tried to get back in to the game in the second but a clearly out of sorts Ronaldo fluffed their best chance leaving France to apply the coup de grace in the final seconds as Petit scored their third. The French went on to become European Champions at Euro 2000 but have not since reclaimed such dizzy heights. Can the French ever win the World Cup again? Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Visit sportbettingonline.co and find out how to get free football bets on all the top matches.