Henry says ignore form, France are still a threat

Thierry Henry today warned France's Euro 2008 rivals they will be making a big mistake if they write off his country's chances of winning the tournament.

France start their campaign against Romania on Monday having failed to impress in qualifying and in friendly matches leading up to the tournament.

They lost to Scotland home and away in qualifying and were booed off by their own fans in their warm-up match against Paraguay last weekend after a goalless draw.

But Henry believes France have proved their critics wrong many times in the past, including when they bounced back from losing to Greece in the quarterfinals of Euro 2004 to make the World Cup Final two years later.

Henry said: "I remember when I was young the French team didn't get to World Cup for two finals in a row. We were getting hammered, but the team came back and we won it in 1998 and then we won Euro 2000.

"But we didn't win the next two tournaments and got hammered again, but then we reached the World Cup Final and everyone is raving again. Football is weird, if you're not careful you won't have time to react sometimes. It's just the way it is, people always talk. It used to bother me but not now.