Zidane lifts Blanc’s new-look France

World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane joined in with 1998 team-mate Laurent Blanc’s new look France side yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s opening Euro 2012 qualifier at home to Belarus.

On paper, the French should be favoured in their group – though they will have to look out for Romania and Bosnia, their main Group D rivals.

However, such was the humiliation heaped upon the French during a nightmare World Cup this summer that new coach Blanc must start by erasing some of the lingering psychological scars after a first-round exit compounded by a training strike to protest the sending home of Nicolas Anelka.

Banned for 18 matches after his foul-mouthed outburst aimed at former coach Raymond Domenech at half-time during the loss to Mexico, Anelka is unlikely to appear again in the national shirt while skipper Patrice Evra, Jeremy Toulalan and Franck Ribery are suspended owing to their role as strike ringleaders.

But the mood lightened with Zidane’s appearance as he, Blanc and assistants Alain Boghossian and Fabien Barthez attempted to infuse training with a flavour of France’s glorious past, when they combined to humble Brazil at Stade de France 12 years ago.

“The main thing is to get back to winning ways – you construct a team through victories,” said Zidane.

“I was here for a good cause – Lolo (Blanc) asked me to come and spend the day with this new team and I am happy to be here and pass on my experiences,” Zidane added.

“But I did not make any speeches – I am not here for that. We spoke of renewal and that will come about through winning,” said Zidane, who added that the squad had had a look at footage both from the 1998 World Cup and also the successful Euro 2000 campaign.