France provided us with the first real cliff-anger of the tournament with the first Golden Goal at a World Cup. Regular readers will know that I have consistently pointed to France's lack of a genuine, poacher-type goalscorer as a real problem. Yesterday that problem was exacerbated by the side's unwillingness or inability to play the game wide. Time and again, the French ran down the middle, straight at the Paraguay defence which just stood there en masse to block them. In the end the French winner was due more to Paraguayan exhaustion than to French invention.

It is true that France were without Zinedine Zidane, and they will no doubt look to him to greatly improve the quality of their game, and in particular of the final pass in attacking moves, when he returns from suspension against Italy at the Stade de France on Friday. But the absence of Zidane, serious as it is, was not enough to explain an unexpectedly inept performance by the French.

I suspect the French were blocked by two factors; firstly, the increasing pressure building up around them as they progress, and secondly that they came up against their most difficult opponents yet. After all, their first round opponents - South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Denmark - provided only a relative test.

With a view to the France-Italy game, it is quite possible that France will improve greatly and not just because of the return of Zidane. Having got this bad game out of their system, and faced with an Italian side that looks positively attack-oriented by comparison to Paraguay, they may well play with more confidence and also find more space in which to play.

Italy did all they had to do in a satisfactory 1-0 win against Norway on Saturday in Marseilles. The game was certainly not brilliantly entertaining but that was hardly Italy's fault. Norway are a side that start a game with a siege mentality and stick to it, even to the point of "defending" a 1-0 losing scoreline.

I have already said that I think Italy lack real class in midfield, but the further the tournament goes, the more you begin to suspect they will keep on finding something. If I were a Frenchman, I would be worried about Christian Vieri, who seems to be enjoying a moment of grace, knocking away almost every chance that comes his way with total facility.

As for Brazil, I was much impressed by their 4-1 win over Chile. I think this too was a case where the very name Brazil scared Chile out of the game. The Chileans wanted to start the game uptempo, but Brazil started even faster and after the Brazilians got their opening goal it was really all over.

Brazil, of course, will have watched last night's major upset, Denmark's unexpected 4-1 defeat of Nigeria, and be well pleased since they now face the Danes rather than Nigeria in their quarter-final tie in Nantes on Friday.

Many people will be greatly disappointed to see the Nigerians go out since they have so many talented players - Jay-Jay Okocha, to name but one - but they are a side always likely to let you down. Sure, Nigeria are a wonderful team going forward but they have yet to learn about the finer arts of defensive discipline and mental toughness.

When they went down two goals down after only 12 minutes last night, it was always going to be very difficult. When they got to half time without scoring, then the match was all but over.