Friday, June 30 2006 16:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hamlin (Germany): If Thierry Henry only plays one second of France's quarter-final with Brazil it will be longer than he managed in the two countries last World Cup meeting in the 1998 final.

Henry, only 20 for that Stade de France clash, was put on the bench by then manager Aime Jacquet but was all set to make an appearance in the second half when suddenly the complexion of the game changed dramatically.

"Aime had told me I was going on in five minutes. I started warming up then Marcel Desailly was sent off (in the 68th minute) and that changed everything," the Arsenal attacker recalled here Thursday 48 hours before Saturday's rematch in Frankfurt.

Henry admitted to being upset at not having been given the chance to feature in French football's crowning moment.

"I can't lie, I did feel put out but it only lasted for a split second and then my only thoughts were for the team which was much more important," he said.

Henry's teammate Lilian Thuram remembers the night from a completely different perspective.

"For me it had a dream-like quality, from start to finish," said the Juventus defencer and les Bleus' most capped player.

"From the moment we got on the bus at Clairefontaine (France's training headquarters) to the final whistle, to having friends in the stands, for the game to be in Paris, and then win the title," he said.

"At the end I said to myself 'it's not possible that this is actually happening," he said.

"I don't have any concrete memories of the game itself because it remains something incredible," he said.

Thuram, Zinedine Zidane and Henry and the other two members of the Class of '98 starring in Germany - Claude Makelele and Fabian Barthez are renewing rivalry with a trio of Brazilians in action eight years ago Ronaldo, Cafu and Roberto Carlos. France had a distinctly less enjoyable time of it defending their title four years later when they got no further than the first round, and Thuram said that embarrassment was in the forefront of his mind when the current World Cup began.

"When I arrived in Germany I was thinking I just hope it's not going to be the same story as 2002. For if it was I was going to find it really hard to deal with that situation," he said.

"I'd done everything not to go through that again by retiring after 2004 (before he was persuaded to return with Zidane and Claude Makelele a year later)," he said.



"But qualifying from our group with that win over Togo released something in me and the team," he said.