It was a game that the French should have won comfortably, so comprehensive and overwhelming was their superiority throughout, particularly in the first-half.
There was just one Rangers player in the Scots' line-up, namely captain Barry Ferguson although Kris Boyd was listed as a substitute against a French side fielding former Ibrox star Jean-Alain Boumsong.
One glance at the French line-up underlined the quality of the opposition – players representing clubs that by any reckoning could only be descibed as the cream of Europe.
Scotland were harrying and harrassing their illustrious opponents from the opening minutes – Jamie McFadden forcing Lilian Thuram into an error that led to the Everton forward gaining possession only to see his shot deflected wide in four minutes.
The French were soon threatening however – Thierry Henry seeing his curling twenty-yard free-kick come back off an upright four minutes later, then immediately thereafter another free-kick from a slightly greater distance was comfortably held by Craig Gordon.
A linesman's offside flag saved Scotland in sixteen minutes when Patrick Viera headed into the net from a Franck Ribery free-kick, then again four minutes later to chalk off David Trezeguet's overhead-kick.
It was all France – Florent Malouda's drive from a Willy Sagnol cross rising just over the bar in 24 minutes, then on the half-hour a low 25-yard left-foot shot from Malouda was turned away by Craig Gordon.
Scotland finally had their first effort on target in 36 minutes when Gary Caldwell's header from a Paul Hartley corner was held by visiting goalkeeper Gregory Coupet.
The superiority of ‘Les Blues' continued until the interval, indeed they had outclassed their hosts, but somehow the Scots reached the sanctuary of the dressing-room on level terms.
The opening twenty minutes of the second-half were no different, with the French demonstrating that they were a class apart from their opponents – without the rather important aspect of being able to apply the finishing touch.
Astonishingly the opening goal when it arrived fell to Scotland in 66 minutes – Caldwell stabbing home a Paul Hartley corner.
The 50,456 crowd were now in full voice – but France almost equalised within seconds when substitute Louis Saha's header from Eric Abidal's centre landed on the roof of the net.
Scots' substitute Gary Teale was denied by Coupet from a Hartley backheel in 69 minutes, then sixty seconds later Christian Dailly was yellow-carded for timewasting – a booking that will deny Scotland his services in Kiev on Wednesday.
The game was building to a crescendo in the closing stages – with Scotland, still under the cosh, threatening on the counter-attack. A superb Ferguson pass released Hartley through on goal in 78 minutes only for lack of control to let the Hearts' midfielder down.
The French piled on the pressure in the closing stages – Henry's header from a Malouda cross being held by Gordon in 86 minutes, then sixty seconds later Saha's angled drive skimmed the crossbar.
Gordon proved equal to the task once again in 89 minutes, cutting out a low cross from Malouda with Saha lurking, then in injury time substitute Sylvain Wiltord's header from a Sagnol free-kick was held by the Tynecastle goalkeeper.
The final whistle brought immense scenes of jubilation inside the Mount Florida ground, the joy being never more unconfined than in the home dressing-room where the celebrating home players were congratulated by Sir
Alex Ferguson.
Scots' national team manager Walter Smith received a round of applause as he entered the Press Conference afterwards, wrily observing “That doesn't happen very often…”
Summarising the game, Smith observed:
“I'm pleased to emulate the Scotland win over France in the late-80's. There were many stages of the game when we didn't expect to win. We took our opportunities. We improved in the second-half. France have greater overall quality – we need to ride our luck against the top teams. Everything fell into place today. We musn't get carried away – there's a great deal of hard work ahead, but it's nice to top the group.”
French Coach Raymond Domenech reflected:
“We could not exploit our possession. We could have done better. We need to be more aggressive.”
His team had at times played their opponents off the park, yet had failed to convert innumerable opportunities to score. Sound familiar…?
A massive win had underlined Scotland's credentials as potential qualifiers for Austria and Switzerland two years hence. There is however a long, long road ahead – starting with Kiev on Wednesday.
SCOTLAND Gordon (Hearts); Dailly (West Ham United), G. Alexander (Preston North End); Pressley (Hearts), Weir (Everton), Ferguson (Rangers); Fletcher (Manchester United), Caldwell (Celtic), McFadden (Everton), [O'Connor (Lokomotiv Moscow)71], Hartley (Hearts), McCulloch (Wigan Athletic) [Teale (Wigan Athletic) 57]
UNUSED SUBS N. Alexander (Cardiff City), McManus (Celtic), Neilson (Hearts), Boyd (Rangers), Severin (Aberdeen)
FRANCE Coupet (Olympique Lyonnais); Sagnol (Bayern Munich), Boumsong (Juventus), Thuram (Barcelona), Abidal (Olympique Lyonnais); Ribery (Olympique de Marseille) [Wiltord (Olympique Lyonnais) 73], Viera (Inter Milan), Makelele (Chelsea), Malouda (Olympique Lyonnais); Henry (Arsenal), Trezeguet (Juventus) [Saha (Manchester United) 61]
UNUSED SUBS Landreau (Paris St.-Germain), Clerc (Olympique Lyonnais), Escude (Seville), Diarra (Olympique Lyonnais), Squillaci (Olympique Lyonnais)
REFEREE Massimo Busacca (Switzerland)