The former France defender was a member of France’s World Cup winning side in 1998, makes a bold prediction to Goal.com, suggesting the current crop of young players in the French national is even better than the generation of 1998.
The French are currently second in Group 7 of European qualifiers behind Serbia. Third-placed Lithuania is one point behind the French. Only the top two teams in a group qualify.
BBC pundit Garth Crooks (and Tottenham Hotspurs legend) going on (especially from 1:50 of the video) about the brilliance of Egyptian goalkeeper, Essam El Hadary–chiefly responsible for his side’s gritty 1-0 defeat of Italy in Confederations Cup group play yesterday.
Egypt, by the way, is currently last in group qualifiers for next year’s World Cup. Only the top teams in the five African groups qualify. Egypt currently trail favorites Algeria. Zambia is second and Rwanda third.
Hosts South Africa has to win or draw against Spain in their final group match of the Confederations Cup tomorrow to go through to the semi-final round. Red Star Belgrade (of Bulgaria) striker Bernard Parker has been central to his team’s fortunes thus far:
First, bizarrely preventing his own team from scoring in their first group game against Iraq (watch for yourself) and then scoring twice against the very weak New Zealand team (see the video above).
If Parker plays well tomorrow (and even better, scores) in a tournament which is certainly the last competitive games South Africa will play before the World Cup, he will certainly improve his chances to be the permanent replacement for the out of favor, and off-form, Benni McCarthy.