France won the World Cup two years ago without a centre-forward - remember Stephane Guivarc'h? Kenny Dalglish does - and would be skinnier odds to win Euro 2000 if playing at home.
Not only has Thierry Henry blossomed into one of the most feared strikers on the continent following his switch from the right wing, but Nicolas Anelka has shown intermittent signs of rediscovering the form which took him from Arsenal to Real Madrid. After both players scored in the 5-0 hammering of Morocco on Tuesday, manager Roger Lemerre said: "I wanted to see what they could do together but you can't say, now that they will start against the Danes."
Zinedine Zidane, who came on for a triumphant half hour against Morocco, added further cause for confidence. It was understandable that Lemerre said: "I'm just so glad to have so much talent in the team. The guys look more and more focused the closer we get to the event."
Denmark, by comparison, look more and more in disarray. Seven players were forced to sit out yesterday's training session, some of them key men like Brian Steen Nielsen, Jes Hogh and Thomas Helveg. The Danish defence has been left in tatters as a result, though there is always Peter Schmeichel.
The forward line is also looking brittle. Winger Martin Jorgensen, who has had a fine season with Udinese, is a serious doubt. So too is Jon Dahl Tomasson, once a flop at Newcastle, now a star for Denmark and Feyenoord. Worryingly, Tomasson is the top scorer in the squad. He has seven goals.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/4ee31596-8d61-44bd-a462-3949478fe71c.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)