French double wins place in history

The current France team sealed their place in football history last night with their miraculous come back against Italy in Rotterdam and as their fans celebrate their achievement has to be recognised as a landmark in the modern game.

The defeated Italian players were made Knights of the Republic this morning but few can believe the manner of the French victory which needed a 93rd minute equaliser from Sylvain Wiltord and a golden goal winner in the 103rd minute from David Trezeguet. If Euro 2000 was the best tournament of the last sixteen years then the manner of the French victory was the most dramatic end imaginable to a major tournament.

UEFA are rightly proud of the efforts of the majority of the sixteen teams to produce exhilarating attacking displays over the past three weeks and they are the only federation to have made the golden goal rule actually work in the way it was designed. Germany scored a decisive winner at Wembley in 1996 and now France have scored two late goals to lift a European title that seemed destined for Italy.

The quality of the football throughout the event makes the poor recent World Cup fade from the memory and the lack of penalty shoot outs saw games won with actual play.

In hindsight France enjoyed some exceptional fortune that makes their win seem predestined.

The French though had the strongest squad at the tournament with world class players in every position but all teams need some good fortune to lift the major prizes.

France needed a late penalty to beat Andorra in the qualifying round and only just edged out Russia and Ukraine as coach Roger Lemerre lost all patience with the French press.

Lemerre is still on bad terms with the French press after several rows and he reacts badly to stories that criticised him last year in the Euro 2000 qualifiers.

In October after France had reached the finals he was close to quitting until his boss Claude Simonet persuaded him to stay but he will now be hailed as a master tactician who created a team with real attacking qualities to carry France forward after their World Cup win in 1998.

To win with home advantage is one thing but France have now won on the road and they are rated at 6-1 to retain the World Cup in two years.

Simonet made sure that Lemerre was tied to a new contract before the start of Euro 2000 and the current boss will lead France again to the Far East even if Laurent Blanc and Didier Deschamps may be ending their international careers soon.

Indeed it is hard to see where an international team can go from this peak.

This will be Lemerre's biggest problem and World Cup qualifiers could prove tough for France after this latest ecstatic peak.

At least in David Trezeguet they have found a new striking star. Certainly Juventus think so and spent £22 million to sign Italy's nemesis from AS Monaco two weeks ago. Lemerre ignored Nicolas Anelka for the final but he could be a potent striker for the team by the next World Cup. Lemerre favours 4-3-2-1 as a system and this may explain why Anelka was not chosen to play in Rotterdam. He is best suited to 4-4-2 but has only had a moderate tournament.

If Thierry Henry failed to impress in the final - and the latter stages of the tournament as a whole - France could live with that.

What Lemerre needed was for team genius Zinedine Zidane to finally break clear of the Italian midfield and start to use his skills to create space for others to attack.

The last twenty minutes of the final saw Zidane finally work himself free of the Italians and help to create the weakness on the left hand side that produced both goal for France. He is the key for France but around him his team mates played with admirable spirit and self belief to work out their great escape and take their place in history.

If Raul can miss a last minute penalty and a golden goal can win the semi final then France knew their chance could come against Italy.

They created two chances in fact and took them both to stand alone in the record books weighed down with both titles at the peak of the international game. Nothing can top the 1984 semi final win in Marseille for the Platini-Tigana-Giresse team as a great game but what France delivered last night was a great ending to three super weeks of the game at its best.