France slipped out of their hands the chance on grabbing the World Cup back in 2006 when they played in the finals against Italy and an unfortunate turn of events kept them unable of obtaining ultimate glory when their captain Zinedine Zidane was handed a red card in the 110th minute.
The match continued playing on until Italy ultimately won in penalties. But the doubt forever remains in what would’ve happened if Zidane stayed in the match?
It’s been a huge task for them to climb from there on out. Zidane retired from professional football and they got eliminated from the 2010 World Cup when losing against Mexico in the knockout stages.
Which led to them having a reconstruction within the federation and Laurent Blanc to take charge of the managing and tactical position of the team.
Laurent Blanc was appointed manager of the French national squad in 2010 after the World Cup of that same year. In which France played the Euro 2012 in a tournament that saw them get eliminated in the quarter-finals after losing 2-0 against Spain. Blanc later stepped out as the coach and made way for Didier Deschamps who is their current tactician.
Currently in 2nd position in Group I, the play-offs are left to be played before they can actually get a spot in the next World Cup which will be hosted in Brazil. Suffering only from 1 loss in the world cup qualifying campaign they are looking as one of the team’s to keep an eye out. Unibet make them slim favourites to get through, whilst the latest betting online suggests fans are backing France.
From Champions to underdogs, everyone has been expecting them to make worthy performances but it has not happened in the last few years maybe things can get a turn around this time with Franck Ribery leading the way for France.