|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Vive Les Bleus France is first World Cup holder to win Euro crown
Posted: Monday July 03, 2000 03:25 PM
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- France has its soccer dynasty. With its amazing come-from-behind 2-1 win over Italy, the side can claim a place among the all-time greats after becoming the first World Cup holder to win the European championship. Its golden goal extra-time win was as much down to guts and determination as the silky skills of Zinedine Zidane. Most sides would have been dead and buried trailing three minutes into injury time against a superbly-organized Italian defense. But France simply never gave up and there only looked like one winner once Sylvain Wiltord's goal pushed the match into extra time. "It is the willpower of the team which did it. The team wanted this trophy since the day it won the World Cup," French coach Roger Lemerre said. The Italians looked like clinching their first European title since 1968 after Marco Delvecchio's 55th-minute goal. Alessandro Del Piero missed two golden opportunities to put the match beyond reach but Lemerre threw on two strikers, Sylvain Wiltord and David Trezeguet, and both scored. "We had some really difficult moments. And it is true that if we hadn't had a 93rd minute and Sylvain hadn't struck we would have been eliminated and I don think that would have been unjust," said Zinedine Zidane. "We really suffered but we wanted to be European champion," he said. "Judging the whole competition I think we deserved it." France has kept its traditional flair and added steel that runs through its performances. Almost its entire squad play in England, Italy and Spain, giving the French regular experience of top class soccer. France simply refused to accept defeat. "Everyone thought we were dead but we proved all through the competition that we had a strong mentality," said Thierry Henry. France has lost just two matches since its launched its successful World Cup campaign in June 1998, and only five matches since 1993. Tellingly, it has never lost a match with its famed back four - Bixente Lizarazu, Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly - in place. With Blanc's retirement, that record, and France's place in history, will stand forever.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
