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The 2002 World cup was hosted by South Korea & Japan. France were led by Roger Lemerre, the man who had been assistant when France won the tournament at home in 1998 and had led the team to another victory in the 2000 European Championship.
The team did not have to play a qualifying round like it is done nowadays. The team qualified directly for the finals and was paired in a group containing Uruguay, Denmark and Senegal. The toughest task for the World Champions would have been navigating around the final game against the Danes, to ensure which team would qualify in first place. It was a surety that France was going to make it out of the group. They did make it out, but not the way they expected.
Senegal came into the tournament having qualified from the CAF (African zone) by topping their group ahead of the more fancied Moroccan team. This would have been their first appearance in the World Cup and they were by far the weakest team in the group, at least based on their World Cup experience. They were led by Bruno Metsu and had a team of relatively unknown players.
The first match
The first game of the tournament had the minnows from Africa taking on the mighty French team. Senegal was not expected to do much in the World Cup, they had just El Hadji Diouf, a 21-year-old striker who had won the African Player of the year but that was about it. France had household names like Emmanuel Petit, David Trezeguet, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Marcel Desailly, Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane. Certainly this game would have been a forgone conclusion.
When the line ups were named, there was a surprise omission, Zidane; probably the best player in the World at that time was missing from the lineup. He had suffered an injury and was named only on the substitutes’ bench. Most pundits thought this was not that huge a loss considering the opposition at play.
Kick-off
The French played with their familiar 4-4-2 formation while the Senegalese played with a 4-5-1 formation with Diouf playing the lone striker’s role. Lemerre had warned his team about the prowess of Senegal but knew he was playing a French junior team since all the players from the Senegalese team were plying their trade in France.
The French started off cautiously as is expected when you play at the big stage and it was 23 minutes before the French mustered any attack when Trezeguet saw his effort cannon off the bar. Senegal might have been lucky to escape that but what came next was nothing based on luck. Diouf had been a constant thorn for the French defence, he had already beaten Marcel Desailly on the right flank during the game and now was setting his sights on an ageing Frank Leboeuf. Frank was unable to deal with the pace of the Senegalese forward and on 30 minutes Diouf raced clear and crossed a ball in from the by line. Barthez and Petit could not deal with the cross and it was left to Diouf’s team mate, Papa Bouba Diop from Lens to score.
The comeback
A goal with 30 minutes gone should have ignited the French to respond but it seemed the missing Zidane was a bigger factor than taking on the minnows from Africa. Although France had more of the possession, they could not muster enough clear cut chances. It was the Senegalese players who had the next best chance with Khalilou Fadiga grazing the crossbar after leaving Leboeuf in another tizzy during the buildup.
France did have chances and had shots from Trezeguet and Henry did nothing to trouble Senegal goalkeeper Sylva. Fadiga’s effort brought on another charge from France with Henry hitting the cross bar but he could not score. Henry did have another last chance to score but his effort was saved twice by Sylva.
The final whistle blew and there was euphoria in the Senegalese camp and shock and horror in the French camp. The French did not know what had hit them. The world champions had lost to an unknown team from Africa.
The Aftermath
Senegal went on to reach the quarter finals of the World Cup, where they eventually lost to Turkey thanks to a Golden Goal. Yes, Senegal qualified ahead of France and Uruguay. France however were left to lick their wounds. They failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup. This was the worst performance from a defending team in a World cup. The French had not only failed to win a game at the World Cup but they also failed to score a goal as well.
Senegal and its players became household names, Diouf ended up being signed by Liverpool along with his team mate Salif Diao. Diouf was also named in the All Star team. Meanwhile, Lemerre was relieved of his duties as manager of the French team. This was time for Senegal to celebrate, the small French speaking nation had just knocked out its great big brother and they deserved every bit of the adulation and support that was to come to them.
