FRANCE HELD BY CAMEROON
England were the last side to visit Paris and they left with a draw, and the World and European champions once again failed to overcome opposition on home soil.
The near 60,000 crowd were brought to their feet for the first and only time when Sylvain Wiltord opened the scoring after 19 minutes.
Patrick Vieira threaded his Highbury colleague through on goal and he rounded Alioum Boukar to slot home.
Cameroon though had in truth been the better team up until the French took the lead, with Marc Vivien Foe and Solomon Olembe both having good chances.
But the Africans grabbed a truly spectacular equaliser just before half time through Parma striker Patrick Mboma.
Roma`s Pierre Wome sent a ball into the area and Mboma produced a fantastic bicycle kick to send the ball past Lionel Letizi.
France were without retired duo Laurent Blanc and Didier Deschamps, and Roger Lemerre also had to cope without Fabien Barthez, Robert Pires, Vincent Candela, Youri Djorkaeff and Zinedine Zidane.
This did give a chance for the French to experiment, and Chelsea`s Frank Leboeuf partnered new captain Marcel Desailly at the heart of the defence, whilst Vieira and Emmanuel Petit also rekindled their former Arsenal partnership in the middle of the midfield.
Parma`s Johan Micoud started as the midfield playmaker, whilst Bordeaux`s Letizi got his chance goal. Although both their nights were brought to a premature end when each of them went off injured in separate incidents, to be replaced by Martin Djetou and Richard Dutruel respectively.
The opposition went with what was considered their strongest line-up, although Middlesbrough manager Bryan Robson would have been disappointed not to have seen Lucien Mettomo make the team, after he travelled to the French capital to watch the St Etienne defender. He did though see five minutes of Joseph Desire Job who came on late in the game.
Liverpool`s Rigobert Song captained his country, whilst former West Ham ace Marc Vivien Foe started in midfield.
France came out for the second half looking the stronger and Wiltord should have doubled his tally for the night within seconds of the restart, but Boukar thwarted him.
Henry then created the best chance of the second period for David Trezeguet, but Raymond Kalla managed to put off the Juventus ace who fluffed his attempt at goal.
After the game Roger Lemerre said that Cameroon played well, and were still on a high from their Olympic win in Sydney.
"We were aware Cameroon were a very mighty side," said Lemerre. "For some of my guys it was hard to play here tonight as they were not at their best.
"We played euphoric opponents who were mentally and physically strong after their Olympic title."
