Le Carre Magique - France's Magical Midfield

Forget the power of Kanye, Pogba & .. you can even Forget the genius of Zidane alongside the water-carrying antics of Deschamps and Viera. Yes, they may have won the World Cup, but forget them - the real beauty of French football was that midfield of 1984. When we talk about partnerships in football it's often strike partnerships that discussed, or a centre back pairing or a midfield duo. A strike partnership can grab the headlines as they grab the goals. It's rare for a midfield Alain Giresse was withdrawn from the semi-final re-match in the 72nd minute People think of the France Brazil game being the last hurrah for the remnants of that great Brazil midfield as Zico and Sócrates joined Falcao and Cerezo in ending their career, but Giresse's substitution would signal the end of the Carré Magique too. Give dates of when players started playing for France and when ended Who were rivals in team. Giresse had been overlooked for National team a lot during his career. First tournament was 1982 aged 29 Great individuals were being picked rather than best partnerships Tigana benefitted from squad of Jean-François Larios much publicised fall out with Platini Tigana and Giresse were team mates. A great all round midfielder he could do the defensive duties brilliantly but also had a terrific engine and stamina, resulting in some great box to box runs. The way Giresse, Tigana and Fernández fit perfectly together, coupled with their tremendous work rate provided the perfect platform for Platini to express himself freely at the top of the square When you think back to how well that side performed at Euro 84, how complete they looked you assume they'd been playing together for years, building up to that home tournament, yet the foursome only appeared together for the first time a few months earlier in February when they played Bobby Robson England Put here about previously picking individuals One of football's greatest ever quartets, their first appearance together was in February 1984 against Bobby Robson's England. The last time they would play together was in the 1986 World Cup semi-final against West Germany (Alain Giresse didn't play for Les Bleus again after that)."