FRANCE fear a backlash from the Netherlands whose players intend to bury their differences in an attempt to restore Dutch pride.
Coach Guus Hiddink has ordered the squad to put all their efforts into reaching the semifinals after they were trounced 4-1 by England in their last Group A game at Wembley on Tuesday.
The Dutch have been riven by internal strife but midfielder Clarence Seedorf said on the eve of today's match at Anfield: "We've agreed that we will not discuss things that have been said within the squad.
"We can't go into this game as individuals, we have to look at the team performance. We have to win to get to the semi-final, that's all there is to it," added Seedorf, whose team-mate Edgar Davids was sent home before the England game for criticising Hiddink.
France, unbeaten in their last 26 matches, are aware of a sting in the Dutch tail. French trainer Aime Jacquet said: "They will be wounded psychologically. But players have their pride - they will want to remedy it against us.
"Between two top-level teams, conceding three goals is already a big blow and, letting in four, much more so," said Jacquet.
Captain Didier Deschamps said: "It's rare for a team losing 4-1 in a tournament to end up in a quarter-final. They are going to want to show that result was just an accident."
Tuesday's match against England at Wembley was the Netherlands' worst result in more than 20 years but Jacquet did not think it showed the team's true nature. "They played below their potential against England," he said. "They didn't seem to be concentrated on the job in hand. I had the impression their minds were elsewhere. They came very close to catastrophe."
Jacquet said his team, unbeaten in all 26 games since he took charge in January 1994, was high in confidence and without any serious injury worries. Striker Christophe Dugarry and midfielder Christian Karembeu are both over knocks they picked up against Bulgaria in Tuesday's 3-1 victory in Group B, he said.
Jacquet said the Dutch player that gave him most concern was Dennis Bergkamp. "He's a great player," he said. "He's complete and he can win a match on his own. He's got great technique and he's a brilliant individual and team player. He's extremely dangerous, and he's riot the only one in the Dutch side.
But Jacquet said he would not put a marker to follow Bergkamp everywhere. "That's not the way we play. We have our own system and that doesn't include man-to-man marking."
Jacquet refused to name his team but the chances are he will stick to the side which beat Bulgaria in Newcastle.
Deschamps, who played for the winning Juventus team in the European Cup final last month against an Ajax side including several of the Dutch national squad, said the rest of the tournament would not be easy.
"People keep telling us that Italy's elimination will help us," he said.
Marco Pascolo, the Swiss goalkeeper, signed for Italian side Cagliari yesterday. Cagliari paid Swiss club Servette $600,000 for the 30-year-old player who has won 40 caps.
The most watched game of Euro `96 so far, according to Carat Euro Monitor, was Italy v Czech Republic, which was watched across Europe on television by 47,980,000 people - 14.6 per cent of Europe - with one third of the Italian public tuning in.
