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France finds old form to return with a vengeance
Paris, Dec 19: Deposed world champions France looked a force to be reckoned with again in 2003, a year when the name of the game on the old continent was making sure of a place at the Euro 2004 finals.
Paris, Dec 19: Deposed world champions France looked a force to be reckoned with again in 2003, a year when the name of the game on the old continent was making sure of a
place at the Euro 2004 finals.
England overcame a players' revolt over the dropping of defender Rio Ferdinand to book their place in Portugal, but coach Sven-Goran Eriksson spent the second half of the year fielding questions about his future.
All of the European footballing superpowers clinched their place at the championships, although Germany, Spain and Italy stuttered on the way.
For the first time there will be a seat at the big boys' table for Latvia who eliminated 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Turkey in a playoff.
After a terrible World Cup, France once more resembled world beaters as a fully fit Zinedine Zidane and an on-fire Thierry Henry led Les Bleus to a French record 13 straight victories.
Two of the wins admittedly came against minnows Cyprus and Malta, but number 13 - a 3-0 demolition of World Cup finalists Germany in Gelsenkirchen in November - will have sent a shiver down the spine of the reigning champions' Euro 2004 opponents.
Jacques Santini, the former Lyon coach who had to pick up the pieces after Roger Lemerre failed to win a match at the World Cup, seems to have united the warring factions within the French camp which characterised the disaster in Asia.
Bureau Report
England overcame a players' revolt over the dropping of defender Rio Ferdinand to book their place in Portugal, but coach Sven-Goran Eriksson spent the second half of the year fielding questions about his future.
All of the European footballing superpowers clinched their place at the championships, although Germany, Spain and Italy stuttered on the way.
For the first time there will be a seat at the big boys' table for Latvia who eliminated 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Turkey in a playoff.
After a terrible World Cup, France once more resembled world beaters as a fully fit Zinedine Zidane and an on-fire Thierry Henry led Les Bleus to a French record 13 straight victories.
Two of the wins admittedly came against minnows Cyprus and Malta, but number 13 - a 3-0 demolition of World Cup finalists Germany in Gelsenkirchen in November - will have sent a shiver down the spine of the reigning champions' Euro 2004 opponents.
Jacques Santini, the former Lyon coach who had to pick up the pieces after Roger Lemerre failed to win a match at the World Cup, seems to have united the warring factions within the French camp which characterised the disaster in Asia.
Bureau Report