Ecuador 0-0 France:

Ecuador went out of the World Cup with a display of heroic defiance which shook France, the new contenders for the crown, to their aristocratic roots.

The unfancied South Americans blazed another thrilling episode into this magnificent World Cup even after Manchester United’s Antonio Valencia was sent off early in the second half.

That decision by the Ivory Coast referee could not discourage Ecuador from going desperately close to overcoming a French team who have become many people’s latest fancy to return here to the Maracana for the final.

A lot of hearts went out with Ecuador as their electric counter-attacks had Didier Deschamps’ men scrambling to keep them out.

Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was almost as busy in the French goal as the flying Alexander Dominguez at the other end.

What had begun as a rather tame affair finished with an explosion of chances in both goalmouths. Goalless it finished. A bore it was not.

When the breathless end came, France were heading for a date with Nigeria, Ecuador for home.

However, the concept of this French team as ready to surpass the likes of Brazil and Argentina was not given any added traction.

Beneath all the thrills there a was a back story on which the French are building their aspirations.

The battle for Karim Benzema was being joined in earnest by Real Madrid and Arsenal, even as France breathlessly awaited a further sign that this man is riding a magic carpet similar to that on which Zinedine Zidane bore them to World Cup glory.

The French regard Le Mistral, the hot southern wind which comes to them from the deserts of North Africa, as being full of mystery and wonder.

That superstition was heightened when Zidane, born in Marseilles of Algerian parents, arose to spirit them to their first world championship in Paris in 1998.

Sixteen years later Benzema, born in Lyon to parents from a deeply spiritual corner of Algeria, is emerging as their exotic new talisman.

To support that belief, he went into this match against Ecuador’s hopefuls only one behind the four-goal leaders in the race for the Golden Boot, Neymar and Lionel Messi. Not that he looked like catching them on this outing.

Still the French see it as another positive omen that on the very day they formally closed out qualification for the last 16 Zidane has accepted his first managerial appointment, at the club which is determined to keep Benzema.

Less romantically, the recruitment of Benzema’s idol as coach of their second team is a piece of clever opportunism by Real.

The prospect of working in the same environment as Zidane, on a daily basis, would make it all the more of a wrench for Benzema to up sticks and move to north London. A persuasion perhaps as great as the hugely enriching new contract with which Real are preparing to welcome him back to Spain from this World Cup.

It counters the attraction to Benzema of playing under Arsene Wenger, the iconic French manager at the Emirates.

Source : Mailonline / By JEFF POWELL PUBLISHED: 21:52 GMT, 25 June 2014