The French have quickly consigned those qualifying successes to the history books and are focusing on a number of tough friendlies before the start of the finals in June.

The series started on Saturday with a convincing 3-0 win over old foes Germany in Gelsenkirchen which stretched their winning sequence to 13 straight matches -- a French record -- and it continues with tricky trips to Belgium and the Netherlands.

Les Bleus will host world champions Brazil in the FIFA Centenary match at the Stade de France a few weeks before flying to Portugal.

The French have been beaten only once this year, 2-0 by the Czech Republic in a friendly at the Stade de France in February.

But France were unbeatable when it really mattered, although Group One was among the weakest of the 10 qualifying groups with Malta and Cyprus not in the top 80 of the FIFA rankings and Israel and Slovenia mid-ranking nations at best.

France duly made the most of it.

After a sluggish start in Cyprus, where they won 2-1, the French thrashed the Cypriots 5-0 in Paris and humiliated Malta 4-0 and 6-0.

They proved solid when it came to sealing their finals place in the small, hostile Central Stadium in Ljubljana, matching the gifted Slovenians with only 10 men and winning 2-0.

On the surface little seems to have changed since the world champions were eliminated in the first round in South Korea, failing to win or even score a goal with Juventus's prolific David Trezeguet and Arsenal's Thierry Henry up front.

But France have regained their confidence and self-esteem this year.

The team against Slovenia was full of familiar names -- nine of the 11 who played were also in the side that lost 2-0 to Denmark in France's last game at the 2002 World Cup.

On the plus side too, the French have learned that they can play -- and win -- without Zinedine Zidane, arguably the most inspirational player in world soccer.

Since Jacques Santini took over from Roger Lemerre in July 2002, France have played eight of their 18 games without Zidane. They have won all of them, scoring 25 goals and conceding three.

With the former Juventus player in the team, they won nine and lost once, netting 30 goals and conceding five.

Life without Zidane is now a bearable possibility, which was not the case in the 2002 World Cup when the country was gripped with anxiety after "Zizou" had to pull out of France's first two games against Senegal and Uruguay through injury.

Without Zidane, France also won the Confederations Cup, beating World Cup semi-finalists Turkey in the last four before taming African champions Cameroon in the final.

They booked their Euro 2004 place against Slovenia with eight 1998 world champions in the starting 11.

But they now have battle-hardened reserves who could make a difference in Portugal as the schedule will be tighter than in a World Cup.