The champions, whose squad featured the top scorer in Serie A (Trezeguet), the joint top scorer in the French League (Cisse) and of course the top scorer in the Premiership (our own Thierry Henry) managed just one point and not a single goal in three matches.

The good news is that Henry Wiltord and Vieira all came through without picking up any injuries.

France were slightly better today, but missed Henry up front where Trezeguet was ineffectual forcing just one save out of Sorensen in the Danish goal. Wiltord posed the biggest threat, and would surely have scored had Trezeguet squared to him in the first half instead of going for a narrow angle shot.

Near the end Sylvain messed up a good chance when his standing foot nudged the ball away as he pulled the trigger with the other. He looked a bit of a prat at that moment, but overall he looked less of a prat than just about all the rest of them. Except perhaps Paddy who had a decent game but had too much to do as the injured Zidane could only produce a few party tricks.

Cisse came on towards the end and looked class.

The teams awaiting the Gunners of Sweden or England (and hopefully both) in the second round are Denmark and Senegal.

Lauren's Cameroon need to beat Germany later today.