FRANCE 98 – Match Summary n°62

Two goals from Lilian Thuram saw 10-man France make soccer history as they reached their first ever World Cup final here on Wednesday by beating Croatia 2-1.

A tepid first was forgotten 25 seconds into the second period when Davor Suker silenced the crowd at the Stade de France by putting the Croatians a head with his fifth goal of the tournament. Aljosa Asanovic slipped the ball to him on the edge of the area. He brought it down with his left foot, made space and put it past a helpless Fabien Barthez.

But Croatia’s joy was short lived when just over a minute later Lilian Thuram, who had never scored for France in 37 appearances, collected a through ball from Youri Djorkaeff and side-footed it past Drazen Ladic. Twenty minutes from the end a superb curling drive by Thuram wrapped up a historic win soured only by Laurent Blanc’s red card which will keep the Marseille star out of Sunday’s final here against Brazil.

Spanish referee Jose Garcia-Aranda sent off Blanc for a foul that television replays showed was nowhere near as bad as victim Slaven Bilic let on. All Garcia-Aranda could see from his position in the area was the back of Blanc as he seemingly hit out towards the Everton player. The 29-year-old Bilic held his face and fell as if he had been hit by Mike Tyson. Immediately Garcia-Aranda rushed over and brought out the red card. But the video shows that Blanc had only pushed Bilic in the chest as the two jostled in the area.

Blanc was devastated by his sending off. ” It’s a personal disaster. But from a team point of view it didn’t matter much. The team can continue to win and we have everything to play for, “ he said. ” I was having a personal duel with Bilic and on the incident for the red card I thought he made a meal of it, “ said Blanc, whose second round golden goal keep the hosts in the tournament.” With my sending off, France, in getting to the final, has got the cake but for me personally there’s no cherry on it.  But the team played very well-we showed great character in coming back, “ he added.

But even Blanc’s sending off could not douse the French excitment. ” We didn’t play a wonderful game but we did play our hearts out, “ said coach Aime Jacquet. But he had nothing but praise for Parma’s Thuram. ” Lilian saved us. He’s been having a great World Cup and the goals are a deserved reward, “ enthused Jacquet. Looking to the final with Brazil, he commented: ” They are probably the best team in the world and it should be a festival of football.  They will logically start favourites because they can turn it on at will against the best sides in the world. But we are optimistic-we are on home ground. “

Croatian coach Miroslav Blazevic praised the French – just. ” The French victory was deserved but I have to say I feel we could have made it ourselves, “ he said. ” The turning point was we lost concentration after our goal. Our impression was that France was lacking strength and, as so often in football, when they scored to level right after we had gone ahead that gave them a boost and they came again. We can only wish them luck in the final. “