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WORLD CUP RECORDS
Danes send goalless France packing
Incheon, June 11
By Nimish Dubey
A goal in each half from Denmark has ended France's World Cup campaign. The result guarantees Denmark a place in the next round.
As in their earlier two matches, France hit the crossbar but failed to score, making it one of the most ignominous exits by a defending world champion - no wins and no goals. France have now become the first defending champions since Brazil in 1966 to crash out in the first phase of a tournament. And that is a record the French wcould have done without.
The French opted to start in white shirts and blue shorts while the Danes stuck to their red shirts and white shorts. France began without Petit and Henry but welcomed back Zidane and Makelele.The Danes pulled no major surprises in their line-up.
Needing to win by at least a two goal margin to get through to the next round, the French tried to get off to a quick start but found the Danes tough nuts to crack. Gravesen and Rammedahl were particularly impressive, keeping the lid on Zidane and Viera. Trezeguet did let off a shot at the Danish goal in the 18th minute but the goalkeeper covered it with ease. The French were however, looking very flat and the Danes made them pay a heavy price for it. A melee outside the French penalty area saw the French defence unable to clear the ball which fell favourably for Rommedahl and he stunned the French supporters by beating Barthez effortlessly from close range. The match was 22 minutes old and France now needed three more goals to stay in the World Cup.
That seemed like an increasingly difficult proposition as the Danish defence stood firm against all signs of French aggression. Trezeguet and Wiltord had shots saved by Sorensen and although Zidane gave more than one glimpse of his sorcery, the French went in at half-time a goal behind.
The second half saw France come out determined to attack. The 51st minute saw Desailly rise above the Danish defence only to see his header graze the crossbar. The Danes seemed content to hold their defensive line. In the 54th minute, Roger Lemerre decided to throw in Cisse and take off the ponderous Dugarry. While this did add a lot of speed to the French attacks, there still seemed no getting past the Danish defence. France had the possesion and looked more dangerous but the Danes still had the goal.
And then they had two! A quick counterattack in the 67th minute caught the French defence napping and John Dahl Tomasson was delighted to double the Danish lead. TV replays later showed that Tomasson had brought down Thuram to get a clear run on goal but that was little consolation for the French. That seemed to suddenly spur the French attack and in a particularly ferocious spell, they had three shots at goal in less than ninety seconds. Trezeguet even rattled the crosspiece but the ball simply refused to go in. That was the last chance France had to get to the next round. An increasingly confident Denmark almost added a third with some creative counterattacking towards the end of the match.
When the referee signalled time, the Danes went into celebratory mode. As for France, there were stunned faces. There are many who feel that this is the end of a great era in French football. Hopefully, we will see them come back all the stronger in other tournaments. There were clearly not destined to win this one!
Match details:
Goals:
Denmark: Dennis Rammedahl (22nd minute), Jon Dahl Tomasson (67th minute)
The teams:
Denmark: Thomas Sorensen, Stig Tofting (Nielsen,), Rene Henriksen, Martin Larrsen, Thomas Helveg, Thomas Gravesen, Jon Tomasson, Martin Jorgensen (Lovenkrands, 46th minute), Niclas Jensen,Christian Poulsen (Bogelund), Dennis Rommedahl.
France: Barthez, Vincent Candela, Bixente Lizarazu, Patrick Vieira (Johann Micoud), Claude Makelele, Marcel Desailly, Zinedine Zidane, Sylvain Wiltord (Djorkaeff, 84th minute), Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet, Christoph Dugarry(Cisse, 54th minute).
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