A sturdy defence and the goalscoring prowess of Thierry Henry helped ensure Les Bleus qualified for the finals with a game to spare, although they had to make do with a second-placed finish behind Italy.

The world champions were always going to be their chief rivals in a tough-looking group, but it provided the perfect chance for the French to avenge their penalty-shootout defeat to the Azzurri in the World Cup final.

They did just that at the start of September 2006, in the first week of the qualifying campaign.

Having got off to a perfect start with a 3-0 win away to Georgia - thanks to strikes by Florent Malouda and Louis Saha as well as an own goal by Malkhaz Asatiani - things got even better four days later.

Playing in front of their own public for the first time since the World Cup final defeat, France beat the Italians 3-1 in Paris to gain a smidgen of revenge.

Sidney Govou scored either side of half-time, with Henry getting in on the act with the other - the first of his six goals in qualifying which made him the group's top individual scorer.

The victory came 59 days after that heartbreaking defeat in Berlin and allowed France to claim an early five-point lead over Italy in the table, with the Azzurri having drawn with Lithuania in their opening qualifier.

France were to come back down to earth with a bump a month later when they slipped to a 1-0 defeat to Scotland at Hampden Park.

Gary Caldwell's second-half header inflicted on Les Bleus their first qualifying defeat since June 1999 - a 3-2 away loss to Russia.

The French recovered and embarked on a four-match winning run to help them take control of the group.

An elementary 5-0 thrashing of the Faroe Islands, the group's whipping boys, was secured thanks to goals by the strike quartet of Saha, Henry, Nicolas Anelka and David Trezeguet (two).

After a break of five months, Anelka - back in favour under coach Raymond Domenech - was again on the scoresheet as Les Bleus squeezed to a narrow 1-0 win in Lithuania.

Lassana Diarra, then of Arsenal but now at Portsmouth, made his debut for France in Kaunas and the utility player would go on to play a key role in qualifying.

With Henry absent through injury, Anelka was starting to take on more of the scoring burden and he starred in France's commanding 2-0 win over Ukraine at the Stade de France in June.

He scored one and was involved in the other scored by Franck Ribery, with both goals coming in the second half.

Four days later, a goal by young tyro Samir Nasri in only his third international match earned France a narrow 1-0 win over Georgia in Auxerre and by that time, Domenech's men were two points clear at the top of the table.

The Rugby World Cup came to France the following September but it failed to overshadow two key qualifiers involving the country's football team that month.

Les Bleus ground out a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Italy in an intense game of few chances in Milan before again succumbing to the Scots in disappointing fashion four days later at the Parc des Princes.

This time it was James McFadden who scored the winner, with France - missing the suspended Henry - lacking a cutting edge throughout.

The pressure was now on Domenech, whose side had slipped to third in the group with just three games left.

As it transpired, there was little to worry about.

Despite a nightmare journey to the Faroe Islands, the French - whose squad only arrived in Torshavn three hours before kick-off due to bad weather - eased to a convincing 6-0 win.

Henry scored to equal Michel Platini's France record of 41 international goals, while Anelka, Karim Benzema (two), Jerome Rothen and Hatem Ben Arfa added others.

Henry would go on to break Platini's landmark in the qualifier against Lithuania in Nantes four days later, the Barcelona striker finding the net twice in the final 10 minutes to seal a 2-0 win that put France back on top of the table.

Les Bleus' qualification was then guaranteed without them touching a ball.

Italy's last-gasp 2-1 win in Scotland a month later meant France could not be deprived of a top-two finish, and also resulted in their final qualifier - against Ukraine in Kiev - being a dead rubber.

That game ended 2-2, with debutant goalkeeper Sebastien Frey making a hash of saving Andriy Shevchenko's second-half header to cost France two points.

Henry, with his 44th goal for his country, and Govou had scored earlier on for Les Bleus.