France staged a magnificent second-half comeback to knock favourites New Zealand out of the Rugby World Cup with a 20-18 quarter-final victory at the Millennium Stadium.
In a repeat of the famous 1999 semi-final at Twickenham, France scored two second-half tries to beat the All Blacks. It was the first time the 1987 champions have been beaten before the semi-finals.
France trailed 13-3 at half-time with New Zealand seemingly in control. But they were given fresh heart after All Blacks centre Luke McAlister was sent to the sin-bin for a blatant obstruction five minutes after the interval.
The French spread the All Blacks wide both sides of the field allowing long-striding flanker Thierry Dusautoir to race across the line in the 53rd minute.
With the score deadlocked at 13-13 New Zealand went on the attack and were rewarded after a series of drives when number eight Rodney So'oialo plunged over the line in the 62nd minute.
However, France were far from finished. Replacement Frederic Michalak, in a brilliant run, cut through the New Zealand defence and slipped the ball to centre Yannick Jauzion, who touched down. Scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde kicked the simple conversion.
Both teams were dead on their feet with attack and counter-attack in a frenzied final ten minutes.
In the end it was France, given little chance before the match, who finished the stronger to record an emotional victory after they had lost the first match of the tournament to Argentina.
McAlister scored the only try of the first half after Ali Williams had a score disallowed when his left foot went over the touchline and Dan Carter kicked a conversion and two penalties.
Carter, who missed last weekend's match against Romania with a calf strain, was substituted by Nick Evans in the second half and with his exit, New Zealand's confidence and control seemed to slip away.
Elated France coach Bernard Laporte said: 'Congratulations to the players, who faced heavy criticism after their defeat by Argentina. This was their reply. We are not world champions yet but we want to be.
'We have just beaten the tournament favourites. It's fabulous. This victory belongs to the players who sweated it out until the last second,' he told a television interviewer.
Lock Fabien Pelous, who will retire after the tournament, said: 'I was thinking this could be my last match but it will not be. I hope there will be two more. We'll do everything for that.
'It was really difficult because we were up against a team with exceptional individual talent. We concentrated on the simple things, gaining territory, defending.'
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw said: 'We can't do anything about it now. It's going to hurt for a long, long time. I'm lost for words. With France we always knew they could come back in the second half. We lost our composure. I thought we could get it back.'
