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France's road to Berlin
14/07/2006: With much of the game gone and Togo looking resilient, anyone who had put money on France to do anything at the 2006 World Cup were probably cursing the team who won the tournament just eight years ago.
Some book makers had France at 16 to one to win the competition and in that last group match against Togo, when the French were just half an hour from being unceremoniously dumped out of the competition, those odds looked realistic.
But just five minutes later, after goals from Juventus midfielder Patrick Vieira and Arsenal front man Thierry Henry, the French were back in business and through to the knock out stages, albeit by the skin of their teeth.
Tournament football is all about getting on a run and building confidence, however, and coming through that tough group test really seems to have helped the French team, much criticised at home and in the press around the world for being too old and too arrogant, to find their feet.
Although the signs of improvement were not altogether obvious during the opening moments of their first knock out match against Spain, who had looked convincing in the group stage of the tournament.
It was Spain that dominated early on and took the lead through Valencia's exciting new striker David Villa.
But after winger Frank Ribery equalised, latching on to a good pass from Vieira, the French never looked back and seemed a changed and untied team.
Even after looking good in coming through that game 3-1, France were still given little hope by bookies or the public of beating the favourites Brazil in the quarter finals. But that was because no one betted on the fact that Zinedine Zidane would suddenly start playing the kind of football that has made him a legend of the game in his own lifetime.
The Real Madrid playmaker ran the show and he picked out Henry who showed his class with a sweet finish to give his side a 1-0 shock victory.
Although the game against Portugal in the semi-final was a turgid encounter, with both sides wary of picking up yellow cards, few will feel aggrieved at France making it all the way to Berlin, where they will meet another unfancied side – Italy.
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