My favourite striker at the World Cup (I consider Ronaldinho to be rather a midfielder) is, without a doubt, Arsenal’s Henry. I like the way he moves, the way he scores goals from any position.

He was interviewed recently on the fact that he scored only 7 goals since 2004 for his national team, about the record of 41 goals for the French side that Platini has and about his partners in front of the other team’s goal: Saha, Trezeguet, Cisse, Wiltord.

“It worked well,” Henry said. “‘Petit Louis’ likes to go into battle and flick the ball on with his head. For the goal I anticipated his pass, and it worked brilliantly.

“He proved in the English Premiership that he has what it takes to be an international. It’s up to us to manage that.”

The Henry-Saha tandem was the latest striking formation to be used by coach Raymond Domenech as he shapes his side ahead of the World Cup opener against Switzerland on June 13.

Henry, Arsenal’s all-time leading scorer, took his international haul to 32 two days ago but he dismissed the notion that he was intent on overhauling Michel Platini’s record of 41 goals for France.

“If that record was my objective I would have taken the ball from Sylvain (Wiltord, who scored the second half penalty).

“If I was thinking of records I’d be taking the free-kicks, corners, penalties. They know me well enough now, it’s not really my thing.

“I think we have to have a maximum number of strikers hitting the back of the net before going to Germany as that should mean that once we’re there goals will come from every side.

“That’s why I wanted Sylvain to take the penalty so that he too can get in the groove.”

France were decidely sprightlier against Denmark than they had been against Mexico. “We’re getting physically stronger. Against Mexico we were on the average side. We still had the Grand Motte in our legs (a reference to the squad’s scaling of the 3,000 glacier at France’s training camp in the Alps last week).

“You could see that after 50-60 minutes. Against Denmark there was more attack, coupled as usual with that willingness to defend well. Everything’s not perfect, we’re still preparing. There are always things to fine tune, to defend better, attack better.”

Wednesday’s result meanwhile augurs well for France’s prospects at the World Cup as they had beaten Denmark en route to each of their most recent international successes at UEFA EURO 1984 and 2000 and the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Source: WCoffsite