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France's Zidane beats Spain in friendly |  |
France kicked off their World Cup year on a winning note Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over Spain in a friendly international to inaugurate its new Stade de France, venue of the July 12 final.
Juventus playmaker Zinedine Zidane scored the only goal in the 20th minute, following up after veteran Spanish goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta failed to hold a Youri Djorkaeff shot which then hit the bar.
The defeat, Spain'sfirst in normal time since the 1994 World Cup finals, augurs well for the Spanish, however. The winners of the 1982, 1986 and 1990 World Cups and 1994 runners-up Italy all lost to France in warm-up games.
France had their best spells early on and in the final quarter on a bitterly cold night and on a frozen pitch that made good football difficult.
"Considering the difficult conditions, it was one of the best second halfs played by France since I've been in charge," coach Aime Jacquet said. "Their performance was encouraging but we still have a lot of work."
Debutants Bernard Diomede and substitute David Trezeguet missed good chances in the final minutes to give the French a more emphatic victory.
Monaco's in-form Trezeguet, who came on in the 75th minute, suffered from first night nerves as he fluffed a clear shot following a superb backheel inside the box from Zidane.
Spanish coach Javier Clemente, who called the end of his team's unbeaten run a mere anecdote, said: "I regret this defeat because we wanted to play a good game in this new stadium. But we lost an inordinate number of balls and the conditions did not help.
"The pitch, especially in the middle, was frozen, which caused us to make a lot of mistakes. We had a good first half with speed and depth but in the second France were mostly dominant," he added.
Zidane went close twice before he scored. Five minutes into the game he had a shot saved after a superb French attack down the left in which Stephane Guivarc'h fed his Auxerre team mate Bernard Diomede with a deft backheel and the winger crossed to the edge of the box.
Six minutes later, Diomede crossed again from the left, Guivarc'h headed down into Zidane's path and the midfielder unleashed a volley that Zubizarreta, winning his 122nd cap, did well to save.
In the 15th minute Spain's Athletic Bilbao defender Rafael Alkorta earned the dubious distinction of earning the first yellow card at the Stade de France for a bodycheck on Ibrahim Ba.
Spain, whose only defeat since the 1994 World Cup was in a penalty shoot-out against hosts England in the Euro 96 quarter-finals, wasted a couple of good chances in the first half.
Alfonso Munoz got in the way of a Raul Gonzalez cross from the left destined for unmarked Joseba Etxeberria at the far post. Later Raul was wide of Barthez's left hand post with a low shot after being put through with a fine ball from Luis Enrique Martinez.
The excellent Barthez also went down well at Luis Enrique's feet after the otherwise faultless Laurent Blanc, his team mate at Barcelona last season, was beaten in the middle of the defense.
