As a result, France were never in danger, and would have won by an unthinkable margin -- if not 3-0 (Brazil's biggest ever loss in a World Cup match) was enough -- if they'd taken their chances.

Before the tournament, Roberto Carlos had been arrogance itself in interviews. During it, his crossing was invariably useless, and some of his free kicks were so bad that they looked like a time-wasting measure. Here in the final, he gave France the chance to open the scoring, kicking the flag in frustration after his poor control had conceded a corner. Petit hit it to the near post, where Zidane attacked it like a hammerhead. In injury time at the end of the half, another inswinging corner to the near post, this time by Djorkaeff from the left, was met by another downward header by Zidane. Roberto Carlos, covering on the line, could only hold his hands up in surrender.

Both of Zidane's headers were firm and authentic, but they came from dead ball kicks, the most basic situations to defend, and if he was an unlikely bet as the only player to score two headed goals in a World Cup final, Leonardo was not any more obvious as a marker likely to beat him in the air. When the second goal went in, he was otherwise occupied, involved in a collision with Dunga. Brazil's defending was just about the worst ever seen in a final.

Centre-back Junior Baiano and Taffarel, the goalkeeper who capped 101 times including a World Cup winner's medal, never played for Brazil again. Juninho, left out of the squad after a serious ankle injury, had to watch the left-footed Leonardo struggle to fill the right-sided midfield position. And with Ronaldo barely there even in body, France could smother the midfield and wait for their chances.

The Les Blues won the Cup without a goal from their front men in their last five matches, with virtually no contribution from Djorkaeff, and only sporadic interventions from Zidane. They were carried through by the workrate and reliability of Deschamps and Vieira in midfield, and above all the best back four of all time.

Zidane was voted European Footballer of the Year, an award that should have embarrassed him. Thuram was the best player in the tournament with Desailly not far behind (his red card for arriving late on Cafu was just an aberration). Lizarazu was a motorised all-rounder on the left, the unfortunate Blanc as elegant as ever. They protected Barthez so well that he could get away with being a shot stopper rather than an all-round keeper. In the 27 matches they started together as a back four, they never finished on the losing side. France set a record by winning the trophy while conceding only two goals, one of them a dubious penalty.

In injury time at the end of the final, Denilson hit the top of the crossbar when Leboeuf gave him too much room, but then Vieira ushered Petit through to slip a cross-shot just inside the far post. Everything Petit touched turned to gold that season. This was France's 1,000th goal in official internationals; he and Vieira won the League and FA Cup with Arsenal; and during an end-of-season holiday he put a ten-franc coin in a slot machine and walked off with £17,000.

One or two Frenchmen may also have had mixed feelings about the outcome. Eric Cantona had referred to the captain as a water carrier, Zidane's gofer. Deschamps proved it was still the age of Aquarius by matching Beckenbauer's feat of lifting the World Cup and European Championship. Cantona had enjoyed himself in an English league without many holding players in midfield, but won nothing in Europe.

One of the main benefits of the racial mix in the French squad was the way it stuck in the craw of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Front. Quoted as saying that the World Cup, like the Holocaust, was no more than a historical detail, he had to face the fact that it had been won by players born in Guadeloupe, Ghana, New Caledonia, Senegal and French Guiana, or of Algerian, Armenian and Polish stock, as well as Basques and blond Normans. Time to contrive an original response. He had always recognised, he said, that France could be 'composed of different races and religions' so long as they displayed the proper level of patriotism. Of course he had.