Put the 6th September 2006 in your diary, it’s the day France host Italy in the qualifying round of Euro 2008.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Zidane was meant to go out on another high, the hero, and after the first ten minutes it looked like it might turn like France dreamt it would.

The time for talking is almost up and in a few hours we’ll see who has what it takes to win a World Cup. Italy seem to be the slight favourites with the bookies and most of the football pundits I’ve heard.

The end of the road is in sight for Zinedine Zidane and has any player signed off a fabulous career in such a way.

France are in the World Cup Final against everybody but Domenech’s expectations, unbeaten in six games and we still haven’t seen the best of Thierry Henry.

It wasn’t the prettiest game but Les Bleus got the job done without any of the main players picking up a ban for the final, now they can really go for it and send Zidane out on the highest of highs.

That’s what it says on the side of the French team bus and the squad needs another big effort tonight against Portugal to make it reality.

The French players got a Hollywood welcome in Munich when Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram met up with director Spike Lee who’s a friend of Henry’s and has been to Highbury to watch him play for Arsenal a few times.

France are on a high following their two great wins over Spain and Brazil and an interesting fact is that’s the first time Raymond Domenech has picked the same team in successive matches.

The French players were out for a little bike ride Sunday to get the stiffness out of their legs after last night’s game, appropriate as the Tour de France crossed into Germany for a while today. The focus tomorrow will switch to Wednesday’s semifinal with Portugal, who France have a pretty good record [...]