Match n°64 – BRAZIL – FRANCE – Mixed Zone – Statements by the French players (1)

Fabien BARTHEZ (16)

“This was the greatest evening of my life. When I took the field I said to myself tonight you’ll be world champion. But in fact I’ve known we could be world champs for some time. Certain things led us to believe we could win tonight and evidently it wasn’t to be Brazil’s evening. I still can’t believe it. The 3-0 scoreline clearly displays how we dominated the game. It could even have been more than three”.

Bernard LAMA (1):

“Tonight we fulfilled every schoolboy’s dream. The history of French and world football has changed forever. France had reached the semi-finals three times and lost three times. It feels wonderful to have been part of it all. The match went as expected, we weren’t stretched too much and we scored our goals at pertinent moments. We were a little concerned when Marcel (DESAILLY – 16) got his marching orders, but Fabien BARTHEZ and the players that came on in the second half made the difference.