Frank Lebœuf at the bedside of the Blues

The French team’s previous defeat with three goals conceded at home dates back to June 1999 and it was Frank Lebœuf who saved the Blues in the following match, against the modest Andorra team, by scoring from a penalty in the 87th minute…

Before Didier Deschamps’ France team’s rout against Italy (1-3) last Friday at the Parc des Princes, in the opening match of the Nations League, you had to go back to June 5, 1999 to see Les Bleus concede three goals in an official competition match at home. The 98 world champions, deprived of Zinédine Zidane who had undergone knee surgery, collapsed at the Stade de France against Russia (2-3), in the Euro 2000 qualifiers, conceding the third opposing goal, scored by Valery Karpin, in the 87th minute.

In difficulty in its qualifying group (3rd behind Ukraine and Iceland…), Roger Lemerre’s team snatched a 1-0 victory against Andorra, four days later in Barcelona, ​​at the Montjuic Olympic stadium. Aimé Jacquet’s successor was also without Youri Djorkaeff, victim of an impressive malaise against the Russians, and had called up and started Vikash Dhorasoo at number 10 to accompany Sylvain Wiltord, Christophe Dugarry and Nicolas Anelka. In vain against the 165th Fifa nation at the time…

Lebœuf associated with Desailly

It was ultimately a penalty at the end of the match, given for a handball by an Andorran defender, that saved France from disaster. Frank Lebœuf, used to taking penalties at club level, took charge of the penalty to give his team the win in the 87th minute. A precious victory that revived the reigning world champions, who finally qualified on the last day of the qualifiers, three months later, thanks to a blunder by the Russian goalkeeper against a Ukrainian striker named Andriy Shevchenko. Without that, France would have played in the play-offs.

In addition to the three strikers mentioned above, Roger Lemerre only retained Marcel Desailly, Vincent Candela and Emmanuel Petit against Andorra, making a risky turnover. Ulrich Ramé replaced Fabien Barthez in goal, Lebœuf, Laurent Blanc’s understudy, played alongside the “Rock”, his teammate at Chelsea, while Christian Karembeu and Alain Boghossian started respectively at right-back and defensive midfield (in place of Lilian and captain Deschamps).