French spirit of 1998 is back

France have regained the spirit which guided them to glory in the 1998 World Cup, coach Raymond Domenech said on Thursday.

"The lesson is that everybody in the team is feeling good and wants to go to the World Cup," Domenech said a day after Zinedine Zidane inspired France to a morale-boosting 3-0 friendly win over Ivory Coast in Montpellier.

"It was everybody's best match in a long time."

The encounter against Ivory Coast marked the return of Zidane, who scored a goal, Juventus defender Lilian Thuram and Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele. The trio came out of retirement to help France in their quest to reach next year's World Cup finals in Germany.

France resume their qualifying campaign on September 3 against the Faroe Islands in Lens and travel to Lansdowne Road four days later for a tricky outing against Ireland.

They will then go to Switzerland on October 8 and host Cyprus at the Stade de France on October 12.

France are currently fourth in Group Four with 10 points from six games. Ireland lead with 13 from seven, Switzerland have 12 from six while Israel have 11 from seven.

"There was not only Zidane," Domenech said of Wednesday's match.

"There were three great players making their comeback. Such players are reassuring for the younger players. Before everybody was a bit afraid.

"I had two goals when I took over the team," added Domenech, who took charge of France following their quarter-final exit at Euro 2004.

"One was to qualify for the World Cup and the other one was to recapture the spirit we had when we lifted the World Cup in 1998.

"When I arrived in Montpellier, I felt that sort of atmosphere. I had not experienced that before over the past year."

Domenech was slightly irritated by a suggestion that France's old guard had made all the difference.

"Things happened over the past year that made that match possible," he said.

"We did make progress."