France have beaten the World Cup champions 1-0 in the last quarter-final match of the World Cup Finals in Frankfurt on Saturday evening after a second-half strike from Arsenal striker Thierry Henry, with France now due to meet Portugal in the semi-finals.

Brazil took an early hold of the match, with the majority of possession in the early stages, but France started to come into the game, with Chelsea’s Claude Makelele making some good inroads into the Brazilian defence.

The game really started to come to life, with both teams having chances, with Ronaldinho playing some excellent passes through for his fellow attackers, and with Willy Sagnol and Patrick Vieira playing extremely well.

France were in fact the better team in the first-half, with France bossing the midfield and Brazil almost continually on the back-foot.

Juan was yellow-carded in the last minute of the first-half after he brought down Patrick Vieira after he broke free from a wonderful pass from France captain Zinedine Zidane, but luckily for Juan, there was a covering defender.

The free-kick saw a handball from Ronaldo, who received a yellow-card, with the free-kick being moved to the edge of the area.

The free-kick was taken by Zidane, but only hit the wall and the game went into half-time 0-0, but with France the dominant force.

Brazil came out for the second-half with far more intent, but it was France that continued to press and their dominance paid off in the 59th minute when Thierry Henry, running unmarked to the far-post, latched onto a Zidane free-kick to volley the ball home.

Brazil then started to have a few chances of their own, but were defended excellently by France, who gave very little space to the Seleçao to enable them to combine an effective attack.

Franck Ribery, who had an excellent match, was subbed for Sidney Govou with thirteen minutes to go, with Robinho coming on for Kaka as Brazil tried to find an opening.

Robinho had a chance minutes after coming on, but he flashed his shot wide of goal, with Ronaldo also shooting wide.

The goal-scorer Thierry Henry was substituted five minutes from time for Manchester United striker Louis Saha as Les Bleus tried to secure their lead for the dying minutes.

Ronaldo earned a free-kick from nothing after diving over Lilian Thuram, just outside the penalty-area, which Ronaldinho stepped up to take.

Unfortunately, Ronaldinho was not on his best form, with his kick going high of Fabien Barthez’s crossbar as time ran out for Brazil.

William Gallas denied Ronaldinho, with Ze Roberto also missing a chance to latch onto a ball that crossed the French goalmouth.

The game ended with France deserving their win and now Les Bleus face Portugal in the second semi-final of the World Cup Finals 2006.