Match Review FRANCE vs BRAZIL Final. France 3 - 0 Brazil. Stade de France, Saint Denis. Viva la France. A magnificent performance saw the hosts demolish the holders - don't take this scoreline at face value, if France had been able to call on a decent striker, they could have won by five or six. In discounting France's chances of lifting the Jules Rimet trophy, the pundits had pointed to the fact that the host nation's strikers just could not score. The critics were right in one respect - France's forwards have been woeful, not managing to score a goal since the knock-out phase of France 98 began. But they were wrong to reach the logical conclusion that this failing would leave them unable to beat Brazil. Football is less about logic than desire, heart and ability, and in the end the French were full to overflowing with these qualities, rendering their lack of a cutting edge up front an irrelevance. Such was the domination of the French midfield and defence that Brazil was hardly able to carve out a decent scoring chance. At the other end of the park, French midfielders Zinedine Zidane and Emmanuel Petit scored the goals, Zidane scoring his brace in the first half and Petit grabbing the sealer at the death. Unlike recent World Cup finals, in which fear of failure has smothered any potential for entertainment, this was a game which had everything. For one thing, there was drama before the start - journalists were told Brazil's star player, Ronaldo, would not be playing, and were surprised to see him take the field. It was then revealed that he had come straight from the hospital to the ground, arriving only 45 minutes before kick-off. There has been talk throughout this World Cup that Ronaldo has needed pain-killing injections before each match and that he was unable to cope with the pressure. Roberto Carlos pleaded for Ronaldo to be left alone. "He's under more pressure than anybody else in the world and all that's happened today has left him very distressed," said the Real Madrid defender. "I have a wife, family and children to go home to, but he doesn't have that. Ronaldo doesn't have the support you need. I urge everyone just to leave the boy alone." But Bebeto hinted that his strike partner's injury problems were not the only cause for concern. "Before the game we were worried about his condition and the way he was thinking," Bebeto said. Given this, it was no surprise Ronaldo performed below par. Once play began, there was plenty of attack from the French, three goals, and in the second half, the sending off of French defender Marcel Desailly. Had it been scripted, the game could hardly have delivered more. The game began with the customary bright French start, and its customary poor finishing. Stephane Guivarc'h, the striker French coach Aime Jacquet chose to lead the line-up in the final, could have had a first-half hat-trick if his finishing had been up to scratch. Instead, France had to wait until the 28th minute to go ahead, via a controversial corner, resulting from a poor piece of defending by Roberto Carlos. Carlos had gifted a goal to Denmark in the second round when he tried to clear from defence with a fancy overhead bicycle kick - the ball ran to Brian Laudrup who scored. This time he had the opportunity to put the ball out for a throw in Brazil's left corner, but instead tried to kick the ball back over his head and upfield. Unfortunately for Brazil, the ball got away from him, and by the time Carlos cleared it, it had gone over the goal line. The corner was swung in, Leonardo was late in closing down Zidane, and France were ahead. Shortly before half-time France could have been two ahead when Petit hit a right-foot volley goalwards, only to see it deflect wide of the post. But the French didn't have to wait long for a second goal. In the dying seconds of the first half, Guivarc'h was put through one-on-one with Brazilian goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel. He hit his shot straight at the keeper who parried it around the post for a corner. The danger from that corner was cleared, but from the resulting corner Zidane was again on hand to rise, this time unchallenged, and head his side into a 2-0 lead. Not a bad effort from a man who says heading is not the strongest part of his game. After the break Brazil tried hard to kick into gear, but they never really got going, and that is probably testimony to the magnificent French defence. In the 12th minute of the second period French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez pulled off an amazing save, denying Ronaldo by catching his volley, although it was fired in from close range. Shortly afterwards, Barthez came for a long throw-in by Roberto Carlos, but could only flap weakly at the ball. Luckily for the French, the giant figure of Desailly was there to clear off the line. Despite Brazil's desperation, France again had the better chances in the second half, with Guivarc'h and Christophe Dugarry, on as a substitute, missing easy openings. Fittingly, the French had the last word, Petit finishing a long run upfield by picking up a pass and shooting past Taffarel to seal the victory. Defence Despite missing Laurent Blanc, sent off in the semi-final victory over Croatia, France's back four looked virtually impregnable, and that's how it turned out. Frank Leboeuf, who came in for Blanc, slotted in seamlessly alongside the defender of the tournament, and one of its best players, Marcel Desailly. Wingbacks Bixente Lizarazu and Lilian Thuram - the two-goal hero from the semi - were not only solid at the back, they both managed to get forward and join the attack. In front of them skipper Didier Deschamps and Petit ran the midfield, giving Dunga no room to create the opportunities for Brazil's front pair of Ronaldo and Bebeto. This left attacking midfielders Zidane and Youri Djorkaeff to run amok in the middle - for the first 20 minutes of the match, Djorkaeff was probably the outstanding player on the pitch. French coach Aime Jacquet said the victory was the culmination of a great deal of hard work. "We are very proud, we worked very hard for this," said the 56-year-old who now steps down from the national coaching job. "We didn't just want to be finalists. We have worked very hard for the last two years and we justified everything on the pitch. We deserved to win." Jacquet said his team had improved as the tournament went on. "We've developed a great understanding in the squad, we are all on the same wavelength and as we got better the public warmed to us," he said. "We had a stock of confidence but we were let down by the press. I'll never forgive them," he added. Jacquet has been made a figure of fun by sections of the French press and the sports daily l'Equipe ran an anti-Jacquet campaign from the time he took over as national coach in 1993 after France failed to qualify for USA 94. Disappointed Brazil coach Mario Zagallo, involved either as a player or on the coaching staff in all of his country's four World Cup wins, said his team just had not performed on the night. "We lost to a better team. We lost it in the first half almost as soon as we went 1-0 down, and certainly at 2-0 that was virtually it. "During the second half, we went for all-out attack and we had the upper hand for a while. But we weren't able to make the difference. That's the way football goes," Zagallo said. "A fifth title will just have to wait for another time. I would have loved it to be this time. We did everything we could but was not our day. France were the better side." But in the end this was Zidane's match. It was ironic that he scored twice with his head, because with the ball at his feet, he looked peerless. His close control was at times breathtaking, and he was always looking to bring other players into the game. After the disappointment of being sent off in the first-round match against Saudi Arabia and being suspended for two games, and after disappearing 30 minutes into the semi-final against Croatia having run the game to that point, this victory, and his own performance, must have been sweet indeed. The defence may have won France the tournament, but the final belonged to the man they call Zi-Zou. France - Barthez, Lizarazu, Desailly, Thuram, Leboeuf, Djorkaeff (Vieira), Deschamps, Zidane, Petit, Karembeu (Boghossian), Guivarc'h (Dugarry). Brazil - Taffarel, Cafu, Aldair, Baiano, Carlos, Sampaio (Edmundo), Dunga, Rivaldo, Leonardo (Denilson), Bebeto, Ronaldo.