Remembering when Zidane & France won a clash of generations with Spain at the 2006 World Cup

At the time, La Roja was not yet the powerhouse that would dominate world football between 2008 and 2012.

Under Luis Aragones, they had just completed a perfect group stage, three wins in three matches, driven by a promising young core: Fernando Torres, David Villa, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Ramos, who was only 20 and played as a full-back.

On the other side, an ageing and fragile France squad had struggled in the group stage, drawing against Switzerland and South Korea before getting a crucial win over Togo.

That was enough to boost Spanish confidence: the Marca newspaper on the day of the match headlined before the match: "We are going to send Zidane into retirement."

Zinedine Zidane, who had turned 34 four days earlier, had already announced in the spring that this World Cup would be the last tournament of his career. He had already retired from international football in 2004, after a disappointing European Championship in Portugal, before reversing his decision to help rescue a struggling French team in World Cup qualifying, but this time, his farewell would be final.

His 105th cap had extra meaning for him with him being a Real Madrid legend, but the clash with Spain could also have been his last in the blue shirt - a dizzying prospect for millions of French fans who couldn't bear to see the greatest player since Michel Platini leave.

This round-of-16 clash also had special meaning for Thierry Henry, who was facing Luis Aragones on the pitch just twenty months after the Spanish coach had made racist remarks about him during a training session. The incident caused a huge stir and earned Aragones a fine that Henry called "ridiculous and laughable".

Zidane steps up

In front of 43,000 spectators at the AWD-Arena, things started badly for Les Bleus. In the 28th minute, Lilian Thuram committed a foul in his own box. David Villa kept his cool and converted the penalty. Spain led, and Marca seemed to be right.

However, France responded quickly. Patrick Vieira, unstoppable that night as he had been against Togo, set up Franck Ribery, the breakout star of the tournament. With a deft move, the French winger beat Iker Casillas and equalised just before half-time.

In the second half, the tempo increased. Vieira picked up a yellow card in the 68th minute, before Carles Puyol was booked for Spain in the 82nd.

In this tense atmosphere, France regained the lead: in the 83rd minute, from a Zidane free kick, Vieira rose and headed home decisively past Iker Casillas. Les Bleus led 2-1.

Ribery was booked in the 87th minute, during the tense closing moments of a hard-fought clash, and fittingly, it was Zidane who sealed the game in stoppage time: he buried Spain's last hopes with a right-footed shot, putting his name on the scoresheet. Final score: 3-1 to France.

It was during this action that the French captain felt a pain in his thigh - a muscle injury that, just days later, he would play through to deliver one of the best performances of his career in the quarter-final against Brazil.

"Never Stop!"

At the final whistle in Hanover, Zidane brushed aside rumours of an early retirement: "For me, it was clear this wasn't the last" match, he said, before firing back at his critics: "There are guys who never touch a ball and still feel entitled to say whatever they want."

Showing sportsmanship, Marca changed its tune the very next day with a "Never stop!" message to the French number 10.

The rest of that 2006 World Cup became part of French football legend: a spectacular quarter-final against Brazil, a semi-final against Portugal, then a final in Berlin marked by Zidane's Panenka, his infamous headbutt on Marco Materazzi, the red card, and the heartbreaking penalty shootout loss to Italy. A disappointment never truly forgotten.

For Spain, the early exit was only a setback. Four years later, in South Africa, the Iniesta-Xavi-Torres generation finally lifted the trophy, bookended by two consecutive European titles in 2008 and 2012.

That day in Hanover, Iniesta didn't even come off the bench. Yet, over the years, he would become the symbol of that golden generation.

Twenty years on, history offers a new chapter between the two nations, this time at an even more decisive stage of the competition. Enough to inevitably revive memories of Hanover.

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