HANOVER, June 27 - France rolled back the years and recalled their greatest achievements on a magical night when they beat Spain 3-1 to reach the last eight of the World Cup on Tuesday.

Goals from Frank Ribery and all-time greats Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane gave France an ultimately comprehensive victory that seemed unlikely when they went behind to a 28th minute David Villa penalty.

By the end of 90-odd vibrant minutes, France's fans were celebrating like they did exactly 22 years ago when they won their first European Championship, six years when they won their second and nearly eight years ago when they won the World Cup.

It was France's best performance in a competitive match since 2000 and the links to the past and the immediate future were all entwined in this absorbing game.

On June 27 1984 France won their first major honour when they beat Spain 2-0 to be crowned European champions. Having never lost to Spain in a competitive fixture, it seemed Spain were going to exact some belated revenge for that defeat and end decades of under-achievement in the World Cup by making the later stages.

But France, despite their dismal failure at the World Cup in 2002 and their slow start in this competition when they drew with Switzerland and South Korea, still retain the self-confidence of champions somewhere in their collective make-up.

They enginereed a superb equaliser when Ribery outpaced the defence and keeper to score after 41 minutes -- and then played a cagey game in the second half.

POKER PLAYERS

The match almost resembled a duel over the poker table between coaches Luis Araagones of Spain and Raymond Domenech of France.

Aragones showed his cards first -- making all three of his substitutions before Domenech made one. Off came skipper Raul on his 29th birthday, and so too did Villa and Xavi.

On came Luis Garcia, Marcos Senna and Joaquin but while Spain passed and harried, France's ageing, creaking defence held firm like a medieval dungeon door.

Ribery meawhile was causing the Spaniards problems with his darting runs and meandering dribbles, but it was Thierry Henry who was to prove to be the catalyst for France's win.

Crashing theatrically to the ground after a shove from his old defensive nemesis Carles Puyol, Henry won a free kick with seven minutes to play.

Zidane whipped the ball across and Vieira headed France 2-1 up at the far post.

It was Zidane himself who sealed the win with a goal recalling his glorious past, skipping past Puyol and whipping the ball past his Real Madrid team mate Iker Casillas to make it 3-1.

France now meet Brazil in the quarter-final which might just complete the circle for this French team who beat Brazil to win the World Cup eight years ago.

Zidane scored twice that night and if he plays the final match of his career against Brazil in Frankfurt on Saturday, it will be as distinguished an end as he could wish for.