France national football team

The France national football team represents France is international. It is controlled by the Fédération Française de Football. France has qualified for 10 FIFA World Cup s with their best result being runner-up at the 1934 and the 1958 editions. They have also qualified for one European Nations Cup where they won the first edition in 1956.

Early years
The France national football team was formed around the time that FIFA was formed in 1904. This was as they played their first match on May 1, 1904, against in Brussels with the nation getting a 3-3 draw. After joining FIFA, they would compete in the first FIFA World Cup as the host nation. For France, they would be drawn with and Ireland in Group 3. After getting a nil all to draw in their opening game against Austria, they struggled against the Irish team with being the goalscorer for Ireland which would get the Irish the win and relegating the French to the bottom of the table.

After the national team slumped to the worst match to date at the 1908 Summer Olympics with the team losing by sixteen goals to with FIFA taking control of the national team instead of the USAFA that had been the case for the past four years. This would be followed by a first-round exit to Ireland at the 1910 FIFA World Cup in which FIFA controlled. USAFA still not happy with the ruling that occurs tried to fight the battle but the last attempting ended in misery as France sent a team to the 1914 FIFA World Cup in England where they finished second in Group D behind newcomers to make the knockout stage for the first time. There, they would lose to at London by a score of two goals to one.

Formation of new Federation
After the first World War ended in Europe, the French Football Federation was born from the ashes of the USAFA and with the national federation being more organised, the team started to put in some results their way. Entering the 1922 FIFA World Cup, they started in the quarter-finals where they would lose 3-2 to the eventual champions in despite a late comeback from  and. That international form continued at home as they were eliminated in the quarter-finals at the 1924 Summer Olympics on home soil when they were smashed five-nil to.

France entered the qualification for the 1926 FIFA World Cup in Spain with some hopes of qualifying for the tournament. That simple hope though wouldn't be the case as they had to enter the playoffs after finishing behind Italy in their qualifying group. Heading to Egypt, they defeated by five goals with  getting a hat-trick to get France into the World Cup. In the World Cup, they were in Group C with Uruguay, Belgium and. Once again, they struggled at international level with the national team getting two draws against Belgium and Sweden but a lost to Uruguay would eliminate the national team again in the group stage. This would be followed by a first-round defeat to Italy in the following Olympic tournament

France's next tournament was qualifying for the 1930 FIFA World Cup with the national team being drawn in Group 1.2 with, Belgium and in the group. For the French, they would qualify as the group winners with the national team going three from three which included a five-one drubbing of Portugal. This meant that they qualified for the group stage, where they were drawn in Group C with the, and the. For the French, they would fall at the first hurdle yet again as they finished with a win over the United States (2-0) and a draw against Argentina (1-1). But the loss to the Dutch sealed their fate once again as Argentina leapfrog them into second and knocking the French out of the tournament.

The next major tournament for France was the first edition of the WEFF Championship which was also the qualifier for the 1934 FIFA World Cup to be held in Italy. With the competition being held over the English channel, the French team was drawn in Group B with, Belgium and the hosts. After getting a one all draw against Portugal, the French got lucky as an own goal from gave France the victory over the hosts in Nottingham. This put them in the box seat to qualify and they would make the semis after defeating Belgium 3-1 with scoring a double. After knocking off the Netherlands in the semi-final, they would defeat in the final to secure their first trophy and a spot at the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

Being drawn into Group B with Italy, and Belgium, the national team finished in second with a win over Belgium, followed by two draws against Irish Free State and Italy gave them a spot into the quarters where they took on Argentina. Throughout the match, Argentina controlled most of the game and almost had getting a goal to give them in the lead in the 55th minute of play. But the French held off on that and an eighty-fifth-minute strike from gave the French a spot into the semis. After defeating Wales 3-0 in the semis, they verse Italy in the final for a shot to be champion. With the crowd against them, the national team would lose by a single goal from Giuseppe Meazza with the national team finishing runner-up (which was also their best result at the time)

Success comes long and hard
After taking out the 1935 WEFF Championship, the national team headed to Germany for the 1936 Summer Olympics in confidence of taking the gold medal. Their first round being against would be where they lasted with  scoring the only goal for France in the 3-1 defeat. The next tournament was qualifying for the 1938 FIFA World Cup in Argentina. The group which also a part of the 1937 WEFF Championship included Netherlands, Portugal and. For France, they could only get the single win against Luxembourg to finish in third place and not make the FIFA World Cup for the first time in eight attempts.

After the Second World War ended, the national team competed at the eight-team Victory International Cup with teams that were on the winning side in the war. Finishing second in Group B behind, they made the final after defeating Norway by two goals. Their opponent in the final being against Yugoslavia and with the French having the luck on their side, would score the winning goal for France to give the French the title by a goal over Yugoslavia.

The golden generation of France started at the 1948 Summer Olympics in the United Kingdom with the French making it all the way to the semi-final where they once again met Yugoslavia in a tournament match. Unlike the second match of these two, this time it would go to Yugoslavia with Yugoslavia getting a 3-0 win and a spot in the gold medal match. In the bronze medal match, France defeated Egypt 2-0 to equalise their best result at an Olympic Games. Qualifying through their group, they were drawn into Group C with, , and Spain in the group.

After two comfortable victories against Costa Rica and Denmark, they got a draw against Spain to qualify for the quarter-finals as the second team in Group C. The other team being Brazil in which the French would lose their final match of the group. In the quarter-final, they went behind in the 62nd minute with scoring the goal. But France came back into the match with goals from and  got France over the line and into the semis where they lose their semi against the, before finishing in fourth place after losing to Norway.

Their 1952 campaign was short lived with them being knocked out by in the opening round of the competition. The 1954 qualification journey was a good run for France with the national team being unbeaten in a group which featured West Germany and Belgium. The national team would be drawn into Group C with, and the. Opening their account with a draw against the Soviets, they would go and defeat Korea 5-0 with scoring a hat-trick in the result. In the final game against Romania, they would lose against them 3-0 to finish in third place and be knocked-out from the competition with the Soviets leapfrogging them after defeating Korea at Valdivia.

Following the disappointing result in Switzerland, France competed in qualifying for the first edition of the European competition. France drew Austria in the opening round and they won 2-1 on aggregate to meet the Netherlands in the quarter-finals where they won 2-0 on aggregate. In the finals' tournament, they took on Turkey with scoring a double in the 3-0 victory to qualify for the final. In the final, France took control against the 1954 World Cup runner-up's in Romania with France getting the title with a 2-0 victory and becoming the first team to win the European Nations Cup.

France qualified for the 1958 FIFA World Cup after finishing top of their group which featured, Finland and Luxembourg. In the group stage, they were drawn to meet Yugoslavia once again to join with two unfamiliar national teams in and. For the French, they finished top of the group with them getting three from three. After destroying Hungary in the quarter-finals, five-nil, France would make their second World Cup final as and  scored the goals in a 2-1 victory to qualify for their second World Cup final. But they wouldn't take out the title with the French struggling against Brazil as they would lose 4-1 in the final.

The next major tournament that France competed in was the 1960 European Nations' Cup. After dispatching Spain and in the qualifiers, they would be eliminated in the semi-finals to  by three goals with  scoring the only goal in the 1-0 win over Romania in the third-place playoff. After starting off with a shaky start against Bulgaria in the 1962 World Cup qualifiers, they would qualify through to the finals as one of the best second-place teams. After comfortably getting through the group stage with three goals from both and, they would be eliminated in the quarter-finals to Great Britain as the British came from behind to win the match 2-1.

FIFA World Cup
Gold  Silver   Bronze

European Nations Cup
Gold  Silver   Bronze