Winning the World Cup was remarkable … and I almost missed it | Marcel Desailly

Marcel Desailly knows what it takes to win the World Cup. The former France captain looks back at the key moments in their 1998 triumph in the first of his Guardian World Cup columns

It’s been 20 years already but I’ll never forget those amazing times. How could I? Playing a World Cup on home soil, getting to the final and then winning it – it doesn’t get any bigger or any better than that. And luckily for us, we were all ready for it.

I say luckily because let’s face it, Brazil were better than us. But we were at our best that day, individually and collectively at the same time. And we had a smart manager who had identified a weakness the Brazilians had at set-pieces.

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