The French bench can only look on (Allsport)

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France began the World Cup in Japan and Korea as favourites to retain the title with an awesome squad containing stars of the calibre of Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry.

But having being beaten by Senegal in their opening Group A game and drawing against Uruguay, Roger Lemerre's men were up against it and so it proved.

But still nobody expected the reigning world and European champions to lose 2-0 to Denmark earlier on Tuesday - which ended their interest in this season's competition. Here PA Sport looks at six other World Cup failures:

Brazil in 1966:

The defending World Cup champions looked confident before the campaign started with a fit and brilliant Pele ready to shine - and things started well after they beat in-form Bulgaria 2-0 at Goodison Park.

But the South Americans then lost their way with Pele the target of some terrible treatment from opponents.

They crashed to 3-1 defeats to Hungary at Old Trafford and to Portugal at Goodison Park and went home early.

England in 1970:

Defending champions England were looking to retain their crown and and many felt their side was even stronger than the squad of 66.

They went down to Brazil by a single goal in the group stages, but also beat Romania and Czechoslovakia to move into the quarter-finals.

But there they faced West Germany, who were gunning for revenge, and they sent England packing with an extra-time goal.

West Germany in 1978:

The defending champions were packed full of class players, but having got through the first group stages they crashed out having drawn with Italy and Holland before losing 3-2 to Austria, who still finished bottom of the group.

Spain in 1982:

Much was expected of the home nation before the competition started, but the writing was on the wall when they struggled to get through the first group stage having lost to Northern Ireland and being held by Honduras.

They then found West Germany too strong before England proved too difficult to break down and they subsequently crashed out of the tournament.

Germany in 1998:

Many fancied the Germans to win the world's biggest football tournament in France with many of their experienced stars reaching their peak, but they were stunned by Croatia at the quarter-final stage and crashed out.

Holland in 2002:

The Dutch were apparent certainties to qualify for the World Cup finals having been drawn in the same group as Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Estonia, Cyprus and Andorra and with the glittering array of talent at their disposal.

But they failed to even make the play-off having finished four points behind Portugal and Mick McCarthy's men.