SOCCER - FRANCE LAUNCH 1998 WORLD CUP BUILD-UP WITH 2-0 WIN .
PARIS 1996-08-31
Euro 96 absentee Nicolas Ouedec and Youri Djorkaeff scored the goals as 1998 World Cup hosts France beat Mexico 2-0 in a friendly international on Saturday .
The victory extended to 29 matches France 's unbeaten run under coach Aime Jacquet , their Euro 96 semifinal elimination having come in a penalty shoot-out , but was marred by the sending-off of Chelsea central defender Franck Leboeuf .
Leboeuf was dismissed two minutes from time for a second bookable offence , fouling Mexican substitute Ricardo Pelaez who minutes earlier had also been shown the yellow card for pushing the Chelsea defender in the back .
Both goals came early in the second half after France had surprised the Mexicans with three half-time substitutions .
After a sterile first half , France injected more sting in midfield with the introduction of Juventus 's Zinedine Zidane .
This allowed Djorkaeff to play further up and his cross from the right fell for Ouedec , who has joined Espanyol of Barcelona from Nantes since missing the European championship finals through injury , to score after a mistake by midfielder Joaquin del Olmo .
Within four minutes Ouedec was returning the compliment for Djorkaeff , playing a one-two with the Internazionale Milan forward down the middle to set him up for a cross shot past diving goalkeeper Osvaldo Sanchez .
Jacquet , beginning the 22-month countdown to France 's hosting of the World Cup finals , said : " We have an identity ( as a team ) which we are going to work on . "
Teams :
France - 1 - Bernard Lama ; 2 - Lilian Thuram ( 14 - Sabri Lamouchi 87th ) , 5 - Laurent Blanc , 8 - Marcel Desailly ( 12 - Franck Leboeuf 46th ) , 3 - Bixente Lizarazu ; 4 - Christian Karembeu , 7 - Didier Deschamps , 10 - Youri Djorkaeff , 6 - Reynald Pedros ( 13 - Robert Pires 46th ) ; 9 - Nicolas Ouedec ( 17 - Florian Maurice 64th ) , 11 - Patrice Loko ( 15 - Zinedine Zidane 46th )
Mexico - 1 - Osvaldo Sanchez ( 12 - Alfonso Rios 78th ) ; 13 - Pavel Pardo , 2 - Claudio Suarez , 5 - Duilio Davino ( Becerril 46th ) , 4 - German Villa ( 16 - Gomez 86th ) ; 14 - Joaquin del Olmo , 6 - Raul Rodrigo Lara ( 11 - Cuauhtemoc Blanco 65th ) , 8 - Alberto Garcia Aspe , 7 - Ramon Ramirez ( 15 - Jesus Arellano 71st ) ; 18 - Enrique Alfaro ( 17 - Francisco Palencia 78th ) , 10 - Luis Garcia ( 19 - Ricardo Pelaez 69th ) .