FRIENDS today, Stig Tofting and Youri Djorkaeff could be the best of enemies in the World Cup Finals this summer.

The Denmark international's thoughts quickly turned to revenge when he welcomed the French maestro to the Reebok this week.

"I have played against him many times when we have been with our national teams and, of course, I know him from our time in Germany," Tofting said, recalling painful past experiences.

"We seem to have played France so many times and we will meet them again in the same World Cup group and in the qualifying group for the next European Championships (2004).

"They have beaten us the last three times but now I think we have a chance. Our team is getting much stronger under Morten Olsen and they (France) have already won everything so maybe some of their players ... well, I just think we have a good chance."

Tofting, who has struck up an effective and reliable centre-midfield partnership with Everton's Thomas Gravesen, is certain to be a central figure in Denmark's World Cup campaign but Djorkaeff's omission from the French squad for last week's friendly against Romania has prompted speculation that his international days could be over.

The 33-year-old veteran of Les Bleus' 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 triumphs says national coach Roger Lemerre had assured him he was only left out because of his dispute with Kaiserslautern and that he would be in the squad for South Korea and Japan if he was playing regularly again.

"I think he will go to the World Cup," Tofting said of his new team-mate. "He has not played a lot this season in Germany but this is a very, very good player."