France of that era had, individually and collectively, a magnificent defence. Blanc is one of the most accomplished centre halves I've ever seen - all of the skill and cunning of the best Italians, but with the physical presence of the best of his English contempories. He scored something like 20 international goals, mostly I think from set pieces. Desailly would have lead almost any other defence, while Thuram was arguably the best centre half around after those guys faded. Even at left back, they had the choice of ultra-dependable Lizerazu or the more adventurous Candella. Backed by Barthez at his best, and shielded by Viera and Petit (whose familiarity from Arsenal no doubt helped) along with Deschamps initially, they were really special defensively. In the attack, they depended too heavily on Zidane, which became ever more obvious as the years went by. By comparison, Spain have an attacking unit the equal of that France's defence. I don't really need to defend that statement - enough praise for Spain has been committed to paper and webservers already. As for which team was better, I don't think it's necessary or useful to reduce those teams to a single variable. Both were marvelously entertaining in their own right.
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