France faces Greece this Tuesday from 8:45 p.m. at the Agia Sofia Stadium. A closing match of the year for Didier Deschamps’ men, which could revive painful memories for former French international Bixente Lizarazu.
The French team, crowned world champion in 1998 and world champion in 1998 and European champion in 2000, is approaching – despite a failure during the 2002 world championship – Euro 2004 in Portugal in the best possible way. Indeed, the French won their 8 qualifying matches against Israel, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, with 29 goals scored and only 2 goals conceded. They also did not lose any of their preparation matches against Belgium (0-2), the Netherlands (0-0), Brazil (0-0), Andorra (4-0) and the Ukraine (1-0).
Jacques Santini’s Blues began the competition with a miraculous victory against England, trailing 1-0 in the 90th minute, before winning 2-1 thanks to a brace from Zinedine Zidane in stoppage time.
The rest is more difficult, because France then concedes a draw against Croatia (2-2) before winning in the last moments against Switzerland (3-1). The Blues finished at the top of their group and validated their ticket to the quarter-finals, where they faced Greece, who created a surprise by beating Portugal in the opening match.
Mbappé “it’s nonsense”, Henry says the terms https://t.co/oJwd0vpalA
— French Football Weekly (@foot365) November 21, 2023
“I didn’t see myself continuing until I was 40”
Despite their domination, the Tricolores lost against the Greeks, who scored the only goal of the match on a header from Angelos Charisteas. The elimination of France is a hard blow for French football.
This failure marks the end of the golden generation of the EDF. Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Bixente Lizarazu and Claude Makélélé announce their international retirement. They will nevertheless reconsider their decision a year later, which will not be the case for the native of Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
“It’s a page that is turning… It’s difficult to stop but at the same time, at some point, you have to know how to say stop. Frankly, I couldn’t see myself continuing until I was 40! I have a pang in my heart because we are leaving the France club all together: Zizou, Tutu (Thuram), Marcel (Desailly) and me…”confided Liza on the sidelines of her free arrival at Olympique de Marseille in January 2005.
