FRANCE 98 – Match Summary n°21

France marched into the second round when they beat Saudi Arabia 4-0 here on Thursday but it cost them dearly – playmaker Zinedine Zidane was sent off and will miss the next two matches.

The 26-year-old Juventus star was shown the red card in the 70th minute by Mexican referee Arturo Brizio Carter for stamping on Saudi captain Fuad Amin. Zidane’s expulsion makes him the first Frenchman ever to be sent off in the World Cup finals. “Zidane deserved to be sent off as you can not behave like that on the football pitch. Players have to exercise more control and discipline,” French coach Aime Jacquet said. “You cannot let it pass.” There was further problems for France when Jacquet revealed that striker Christophe Dugarry, who had to be stretchered off, would be out for at least two weeks with a leg injury.

Despite running out easy winners, Jacquet was not satisfied with his team’s performance. “I must admit we missed too many chances particularly in the first half,” he complained. France dominated the match but it was only when Saudi Arabia were reduced to ten men after Carter gave Mohammed Al Khilaiwi his marching orders in the 19th minute for a late tackle on full-back Bixente Lizarazu as he broke down the left wing that they managed to open the scoring.

It was a day of glory for the Monaco duo of Thierry Henry and 20-year-old David Trezeguet. Henry sidefooted the ball home nine minutes before the break, Trezeguet scored in the 68th minute before Henry added his second with 13 minutes to go. His second goal put him top of the goal scoring table with Marcelo Salas of Chile and Christian Vieri of Italy. All three have three goals a piece after two matches.

Bayern Munich’s Lizarazu hit the fourth with six minutes left following a wonderfully deceptive backheel by substitute Youri Djorkaeff. France are now assured of going into the knockout stages following the 1-1 draw between Denmark and South Africa in Toulouse earlier on Thursday. The French, who face the Danes in Lyon in group C on Wednesday, are set to qualify as group winners and meet the runner-up of the Spain, Nigeria, Paraguay and Bulgaria group in Lens on June 28. Jacquet had made three changes to the team which beat South Africa 3-0 in their opening match. Dugarry was brought in for injured striker Stephane Guivarc’h but Jacquet caused a surprise by bringing in Bernard Diomede in place of Emmanuel Petit in left midfield and defensive midfielder Alain Boghossian was preferred to playmaker Youri Djorkaeff.

Saudi Arabia made just one change to the team which fell 1-0 to Denmark in Lens on Friday with Hamzah Saleh replacing Khalid Al Muwalid in midfield.

Early on Zidane had a shot twice blocked following good work by Henry on the right flank. Zidane also skied a freekick over the bar. The whole complexion of the match changed when central defender Mohammed Al Khlaiwi was sent off. The Saudis created one great chance in the first-half to score when Sami Al Jaber broke away when Laurent Blanc stumbled and it was only the quick reflexes of France keeper Fabien Barthez that stopped a Saudi Arabian equaliser. Saudi Arabia’s Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Perreira said he could not comment on his player’s sending off because he was too far away from the incident. “It looked like a very strict decision, but I couldn’t really see. But that’s the way it goes in football some times. I think the result was a fair reflection of the difference between the two sides. It was clear it was going to be a tough game. Although we only had 10 players, we were holding our own at just 1-0 down for some time. Later in the game we tried to make a few changes and suddenly everything just got worse and worse.”