No Frenchman will ever forget our World Cup win in 1998. It was a privilege for me to be part of it.

The team followed that up with another victory at Euro 2000 before our bad performances at the World Cup two years ago.

Expectation is strong again for Euro 2004, starting with the match against England, and comparisons will probably be made between this team and the World Cup winners.

It is hard to say which team is better but you can’t help but notice that a lot of the ’98 squad are still around.

Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Fabien Barthez, Bixente Lizarazu, Marcel Desailly, David Trezeguet, Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires were all involved in the World Cup victory even if some didn’t play in the final.

They all have great experience now and some of them like Henry are definitely better than six years ago.

In addition there are a lot of new players at Euro 2004 who weren’t around then; players like Mikael Silvestre, William Gallas, Jerome Rothen and Claude Makalele.

All in all, I would say that if this current team isn’t better than the 1998 side, it’s at least as good as them.

I don’t want to come across as arrogant but the French attitude is to concentrate on their own game rather than worry about the opposition.

If France can perform to their maximum, I think most people will agree they will be very hard to beat.

France know England have some fantastic players like Owen, Beckham and Gerrard.

But I honestly think they won’t be over-concerned with any opponents. It is more important that Zidane, Henry and Vieira play well.

When the French look around their dressing-room they know they have the ability to beat most teams.

The only time they normally lose is because they haven’t got their game together rather than somebody outplaying them.

The French have a winning mentality from 1998 and Euro 2000 and that will give them an inner confidence when they run out in Lisbon against England

Franck was talking to Joe Bernstein