Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Former soccer star and World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane has said he hopes France, the team he won the World Cup with, gets a tough draw in the 2014 World Cup group stage.
France finished second in qualifying behind group winner Spain. They then lost the first leg of their playoff match in Ukraine. France rallied however and some tactical changes by manager Didier Deschamp, also a World Cup winner in 1998, throttled the team to a historic victory in Paris by winning the second leg.
"What I would like for France is that they go into a difficult group so that they don't say to themselves 'we're going to play small teams', but rather 'we have to get out of this group.' They need to be in an all-conquering spirit from the start of the competition. Perhaps for other teams it would not be the case, but for France, it would be good," the 41-year-old said.
France is currently in the 4th pot. The first pot is full of seeded teams, while the other three are based off of geographic location.
Zidane, who led France to victory in the 1998 World Cup on home soil, is now an assistant coach at Spanish club Real Madrid.
