The French team is not used to taking on water at home. Before the 3-1 defeat of Kylian Mbappé’s Blues against Italy, Friday evening at the Parc des Princes, in the Nations League, we had to go back to June 5, 1999 to see the French team concede three goals at home in an official competition. It was during a defeat against Russia (2-3), at the Stade de France, in the Euro 2000 qualifiers. The 98 world champions, led by Roger Lemerre (successor to Aimé Jacquet), were without their star number 10 Zinédine Zidane.
Ballon d’Or winner “Zizou” missed the end of the season with Juventus, injured in the right knee in March 1999, during a Champions League quarter-final second leg against Olympiakos (1-1). The Marseille player, then aged 26, finally underwent surgery on the meniscus of his right knee in May, by Professor Jaeger in Strasbourg. His unavailability was announced at a month and a half and the Bianconeri number 21 was therefore out of the French team for the international window in June.
Zidane replaced by Djorkaeff in 10
Without Zidane, the Blues lost for the first time since their world title on this same ground in Saint-Denis (2-3). Youri Djorkaeff had taken over the number 10 position, with Sylvain Wiltord and Christophe Dugarry on the wings, but Nicolas Anelka strangely found himself alone up front in the opposing block. Emmanuel Petit (with a deflected long-range free kick) and Sylvain Wiltord (at the end of a united raid) made the net tremble at the start of the second half, but a second goal from Aleksandr Panov kept the visitors alive before a winning goal from Valery Karpin in the 87th minute of the game against an overwhelmed Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly.
A year after the 98 World Cup, the French team found itself third in its Euro qualifying group behind Ukraine and Iceland. The fault of draws against Iceland (1-1) and Ukraine (0-0). In the wake of the defeat against the Russians, a penalty from Frank Leboeuf at the end of the match against Andorra saved the Blues from another poor performance. Four months later, France miraculously qualified on the last day thanks to a victory against Iceland (3-2) as well as Russia’s draw against Ukraine (1-1), goalkeeper Aleksandr Filimono literally gifting a goal to Andriy Shevchenko in the 87th minute…
