France produced an excellent ...

France produced an excellent second half display to ese themselves past a Belgian side that lacked finishing power in Casablanca last night.

Zinedine Zidane combined with Stephane Guivarc'h to produce the decisive moment when he slid the ball wide of the advancing Philip De Wilde in the Belgian goal after a clever knockdown from Guivarc'h.

Although France were unable to build on this scoreline they dominated the exchanges in an impressive second half display. In the first half their defence was turned on occassion by the Belgian forward pair of Nilis and Oliviera but they were unable to force saves from goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.

The French passing was crisp and exacting for the Belgian defence to deal with after the break and they pushed up as a unit to squeeze the space from the Belgian attack which did not look like breaking down the defence and its formidable midfield shield.