Djibril Cisse has stated his France team are out to prove their doubters wrong at the World Cup.
France striker targets South Africa glory
Djibril Cisse has stated his France team are out to prove their doubters wrong at the World Cup.
The 1998 champions are not among the favourites to bring the trophy home, with controversial manager Raymond Domenech coming in for criticism from the French public ahead of his swansong.
Their poor World Cup qualifying campaign, in which they only qualified through a play-off thanks to Thierry Henry's infamous handball assist against Republic of Ireland, has given the critics added ammunition.
Despite being unfancied at the previous tournament, a Zinedine Zidane-inspired France managed to reach the final before losing to Italy on penalties.
However in 2002, when Les Bleus were expected to brush all comers aside as the European Championship and World Cup holders, they crashed out without scoring a single goal, something Cisse, who was involved that year, is desperate to avoid.
"No-one is safe from a shock like 2002, if we arrive with flowers in our gun barrels, we'll be going back quickly," he said.
Desire
"We know we have lots of work to do, we have great desire and we want to shut the critics up and change people's vision of the France team.
"For France, (a successful World Cup) is going all the way. The best World Cup is when you win it.
"If you ask that question to a smaller team than France, a successful World Cup would be getting to the quarter-finals. But we want to go all the way. That begins by training well."
Their preparations continue with a friendly against China on Friday, with Cisse mindful of playing against the team who shattered his dream of playing in the 2006 finals by breaking his leg in a warm-up friendly.
Fortunately for Cisse, Zheng Zhi, the man who broke the 28-year-old's leg four years ago, will not be on the pitch, although Cisse made a light-hearted comment about the Celtic midfielder regarding the challenge.
"It's not a nice souvenir. It's the blink of an eye, it happens," Cisse said of the injury.
"He (Zhi) won't be there, I found out. Shame. The two of us could have talked about it.
"Against China, we need a good performance, some goals, a victory, and after we'll be more confident and better in our minds."
