Incredible Training Ground Footage Shows France Players Discussing How To Stop 'R9' Ronaldo Before WC Final

Ahead of the 1998 World Cup final, hosts France made sure a certain Ronaldo was not going to ruin their chances of glory at the Stade de France.

The likes of Marcel Desailly, Lillian Thuram and Frank Leboeuf can be seen discussing how to try and stop Brazil's deadly forward, who had scored 34 goals in all competitions during that campaign. Watch the video below:

That's right. These world class defenders dedicated an entire training session for 'The Phenomenon', just days before the crunch clash.

You can hear the players discussing how to stop those famous stepovers, as well as not getting too tight when marking him.

The training session seemed to have worked, with the French eventually beating the mighty Brazil 3-0 thanks to goals from Zinedine Zidane (2) and Emmanuel Petit.

But that important training session could have counted for nothing after Ronaldo was originally not named in the starting line-up.

It was thought that 'R9' was hit with an illness bug but just 30 minutes before kick-off, it was confirmed that Ronaldo would start against France.

The 1998 World Cup was certainly controversial. Michel Platini admitted that it was, in fact, fixed to a certain extent.

He said: "When we organised the calendar, we did a little trickery. If we finished first in the group and Brazil finished first, we could not meet before the final.

"We did not get bored for six years to organise the World Cup to not do some little shenanigans.

"You think that the others did not do it for their World Cup France-Brazil in the final, it was the dream of everyone."