Zinedine Zidane showed David Beckham how to bend it when he conjured up a stunning win in the Stadium of Light on Sunday.
The England captain’s former Manchester United teammate Fabien Barthez had obviously seen the training film because he knew which way to dive for Beckham’s penalty.
But Zidane, the softly-spoken, Marseille-born Real Madrid playmaker, whose two headers won France the 1998 World Cup final against Brazil, lit up France with two injury-time strikes for a famous win.
His display showed just how much he means to France. When ZZ was injured for the first two games of the 2002 World Cup, France lost to Senegal and drew 0-0 with Uruguay. Half-fit against Denmark, the French crashed 2-0.
Despite a wretched last two months when Real Madrid’s season fell apart, Zidane proved just why Fifa made him their player of the year for a second time.
Typically, the player, who will turn 32 later this month, was modest in triumph.
”Fabien kept us alive. He helped us believe we could still win. That was the turning point,” he said of his goalkeeper’s penalty heroics. I had two chances I was able to take.”
Zidane, who scored from a golden goal penalty in the 2002 European championships against Portugal, said France’s big-match experience had made the difference.
”We’ve been through this sort of thing before. We had not expected such a hard game but we never gave up hope. In a game of football it’s usually a couple of things that decide who wins.”
Fabien made his save and Titi [Thierry Henry] won the penalty.
”We were as good as beaten but we were never afraid.”
Zidane made his France debut almost 10 years ago against the Czech Republic when he scored the first of his 23 international goals. His club career took off under Luis Fernandez’ Cannes before his 17th birthday and two years later he was on the international stage.
After a spell at Bordeaux, Zidane moved to Juventus who splashed out four million dollars to secure his artistry. In Italy Zidane’s stock rose sharply as he won the European Super Cup, two Intercontinental Cups and two Italian championships.
After helping France win Euro 2000, Real Madrid got out a cheque and wrote the figure $63,6-million on it — the highest transfer ever.
Two years later he scored a superb left-footed volley in Real’s win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League final.
After earning the dubious distinction of becoming the first reigning World Cup champions to fail to score a goal in 2002, France and their inspirational midfielder got down to work. They won every match to qualify for Euro 2004 and England discovered to their cost on a hot Sunday night in Lisbon that you never go to sleep when ZZ is on the prowl. – Sapa-AFP