France's Thierry Henry (L) vies against Switzerland's Philippe Senderos during the second match of the World Cup 2006 Group G in Stuttgart, Germany on June 13, 2006. The match ended in a 0-0 draw. -Xinhua

France were forced to a 0-0 tie against Switzerland in their 2006 world cup opener in Stuttgart on Tuesday.

While retiring Zidane and some of his compeers were fighting for their final glory in the international stage, the Les Bleus had yet to overcome the specter from the 2002 tournament when they suffered a shocking early exit in the first round.

"We get used to sharing points with Switzerland," said French coach Raymond Domenech after the match.

The swiss twice held Domenech's men during the qualifiers and the overall 35 previous head to heads between the two nations were 15 wins for France, 12 for Switzerland and eight draws.

"We didn't score but if you look into all the opportunities that we created, you will find it out very positive," said Domenech.

The French were sharper to every ball at the very beginning and that good spell of pressure ended with Patrick Vieira mis-hitting for a Sagnol cross in the 14th minute.

In the 36th minute, a slip from Swiss defender Philippe Senderos allowed Frank Ribery to race in on goal. But the Marseille winger seemed unsure of himself and passed the ball to Thiery Henry instead of going for goal himself.

The Arsenal striker's shot was shut off by a seemingly handball of Swiss defender Patrick Mueller, which was not awarded by the Russian referee.

Henry also squandered a couple of chances when his shots went either wide or high or right into the Swiss keeper Pascal Zuberbuehler's fingers.

The Switzerland had a real good chance in the 23th minute, when Tranquillo Barnetta's indirect free kick eluded everyone and came back off Fabien Barthez's left hand post.

Swiss defender Alexander Frei reached the bounce but his shots first hit the post, and then went high off the bar.

The second half proved the same pattern with French possession and set piece opportunities coming to very little although Franck Ribery was substituted by forward Louis Saha to strengthen offence in the 72nd minute.

Some direct running from Lyon striker Sylvain Wiltord nearly forced an opportunity for the French six minutes from the end.

But after working a neat one-two with Zidane, he was closed out and went down in a painful look.

"I have to be satisfied with the result and things the way it looked. The French were stronger all as a whole and in the first half," said Swiss coach Koebi Kuhn.

"My players showed a lot of will in the match. Despite of small things especially on defence, and ball possession, I'm very satisfied with their performance."

Since winning the 1998 world cup title by defeating Brazil 3-0, France have failed to win or score a single goal in world cup matches.

But Domenech, who took the reins of national team in 2004, criticized the pitch conditions instead of blaming on offence problems.

"Today is hot but they watered the pitch too late. So it was still very wet when the match began," he said.

"It's a pitch for defence, not a pitch for attack. The ball just didn't roll."

Kuhn, sharing Domenech's opinion on pitch though, felt surprised to see "great players like Henry and Ribery were affected by such situation."

"But I think we should forgive them," he said.

The two both looked to the next match as crucial.

"It could be a tense battle against South Korea. They won the first match and it's a good situation for them," said Domenech, " but it's obvious that we have to win."

Kuhn said that the South Korean clash could be decisive for French because they were to face opponents already with three points.

"But I think French are strong enough to beat South Korea."