And France ride through...

It was destined to be zidane's game...AFter every football writer worth his salt had written his obituary in the group stages, his comeback has been nothing short of spectacular. The match started as was expected with both teams leaving only the lone striker upfield and neither team wanting to concede the early goal. Ther were a few early long range efforts from the portuguese being parried by the french keeper barthez....that pretty much was turning out to be the story of the second half when henry turned carvalho in the penalty area and was brought down. Penalty to france..and who should coolly slot it home other than zizu himself.. The second half began with portugal playing wide with ronaldo running at defenders but there was no end product.thuram played out of his skin and was everywhere in th box, itercepting crosses at will.. The match ended at 1-0 and france were through with the chance of winning only their 2nd world cup. but they will have the azzuri to cintend with and they are the team with the best defensive record in the tourney....france will look once agian to their talisman zidane to weave his magic.