page_title: History of the France national football team
section_title: 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 champions
hierarchical_section_title: History of the France national football team / Zidane era / 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 champions
caption_attribution_description: David Trézéguet
context_page_description: The history of the French national football team dates back to 1904. The national team, also referred to as Les Bleus, represents the nation of France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA.
  France was one of the four European teams that participated at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and was one of eight national teams to have won the competition, which they did in 1998 when they hosted the cup. They defeated Brazil 3–0 in the final. France has won two World Cups, one in 1998 and another in 2018. France has also won two UEFA European Football Championships, first in 1984, led by Ballon d'Or winner Michel Platini, and then in 2000, led by FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane. Following France's 2001 Confederations Cup victory, they became, along with Argentina, the only national teams to win the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Confederations Cup, and the Olympic Tournament.
context_section_description: On 1 July 1992, FIFA announced that France would be the host of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The announcement led to the construction of the Stade de France, the country's national stadium; built in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis. France were excused from qualifying and began hosting monthly competitive friendly matches beginning with a 2–0 win over Mexico on 31 August 1996. Jacquet gave debuts to numerous players during the exhibition matches. Winger Robert Pires of Metz fame made his debut in the Mexico match. Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira made his debut in the team's 2–1 win over the Dutch on 26 February 1997 and, in the team's following match against Sweden in April, Claude Makélélé was given a place in the team; he had already made his debut in 1995. On 11 November against South Africa, Thierry Henry and Stéphane Guivarc'h made their debuts in the team and David Trezeguet did so on 28 January 1998 against Spain, in an inauguration match for the recently completed Stade de France. In total, France played in 18 friendly matches leading up to the World Cup earning 10 wins, 5 draws, and suffering 3 defeats. The team recorded wins over Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain and also earned a 1–1 draw against Brazil at the Stade de Gerland in 1997. Jacquet's squad for the World Cup was extremely different from the Euro 1996 squad, with only Bernard Lama, Blanc, Zidane, Deschamps, Petit, Desailly, Djorkaeff, Lizarazu, Frank Leboeuf, Christian Karembeu, and backup goalkeeper Fabien Barthez remaining. Most of the spots available were taken up by the young players who made their debuts during the friendly matches such as Vieira, Henry, Pires, Vincent Candela, Alain Boghossian, and Trezeguet. Jacquet adopted a 4–3–3 formation with Henry and Djorkaeff on the wings and Zidane playing in an advance midfield playmaker role. Deschamps and Petit served as protectors and distributors of the ball, while full backs Thuram and Lizarazu got forward as often as they could to support the attack.
  The format of the 1998 FIFA World Cup was different from 1994, as the finals were expanded from 24 to 32 teams. The golden goal rule was also introduced to decide knockout matches which went into extra time. Another change in the rules also came into effect at this World Cup, stating that as regulation time was about to expire in any period of play, the fourth official would use a hand-held electronic display to show how many minutes of stoppage time were to be played. France were in a group with South Africa, Denmark, and Saudi Arabia.
  France beat South Africa 3–0 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, with Henry scoring his first international goal in the 92nd minute. In the team's following match against Saudi Arabia at the Stade de France, they got a 4–0 win with Henry scoring two. The victory secured a spot in the knockout rounds. In the team's final group stage match in Lyon against Denmark, France won 2–1 with Djorkaeff scoring a penalty and Petit netting the game-winning goal. In the Round of 16, France faced Paraguay in Lens. The team were without Zidane due to a red card suspension and also Dugarry, who was injured. The match ended scoreless in normal time. In extra time, Laurent Blanc scored the first golden goal in World Cup history in the 114th minute. The golden goal put France into the quarter-finals where they faced rivals Italy at the Stade de France in front of 77,000 supporters. Despite Zidane returning to the team, France were met head on with an equally matched team composed of the likes of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Fabio Cannavaro, Giuseppe Bergomi, and Roberto Baggio. The match ended in a draw in both normal and extra time, so it went to penalties, where France defeated Italy 4–3 to advance to the World Cup semi-finals for the fourth time with Lizarazu missing for France and Demetrio Albertini and Luigi Di Biagio for Italy.
  France faced Croatia in the semi-finals, with both teams knowing they played Brazil if they won. Croatia opened the scoring a minute into the second half through Davor Šuker. Only a min
caption: David Trezeguet scored the golden goal in the UEFA Euro 2000 Final.
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