Craig Moore shows his joy after netting against France (HamishBlair/Allsport)

Goals either side of halftime by Australia's Craig Moore and France striker David Trezeguet settled the controversial match, which had brought the club versus country debate in Europe into sharp focus over recent months.

Australia defender Kevin Muscat was surrounded by angry French players after he launched himself at Dugarry, twisting the striker's knee between his own legs. The Girondins Bordeaux player was stretchered off the field, while Muscat was yellow-carded and immediately substituted.

France coach Roger Lemerre later said Muscat's challenge was 'an act of brutality' and that the Dugarry would be out of action for at least three months with severely overstretched knee ligaments.

Inspired by Zinedine Zidane in midfield, France had dominated the first half and had a host of scoring chances, but just before the break a header by Rangers defender Craig Moore gave the hosts the lead against the run of play.

A Stan Lazaridis corner from the right was flicked on by Tony Vidmar and Moore was free to head the ball past Manchester United goalkeeper Fabien Barthez at point-blank range.

France responded three minutes into the second half after some fluent interplay between Dugarry and Robert Pires inside the box left Juventus striker Trezeguet with a simple tap in.

The game then became a free-flowing affair despite the very wet conditions, with both sides creating scoring chances and Leeds striker Harry Kewell increasingly threatening for Australia.

John Aloisi had the opportunity to secure victory for Australia in injury time, but seemed to lose his footing in the box as he tangled with substitute France defender Mikael Silvestre.

Australia coach Frank Farina said afterwards he thought the Manchester United defender had fouled Aloisi and his team were unlucky not to have won a penalty.

The friendly had caused a great deal of controversy in Europe after FIFA requested that both countries restrict their selections for the match to just one player from each club.

This was in response to a petition signed by 15 European clubs asking for it to be scrapped or postponed. Both coaches ignored the request after being assured that they were within their rights to pick whoever they wanted.

The match was part of Australia's preparation for their World Cup play-off against the team that finishes fifth in South America's World Cup qualifying campaign on November 20 and 25 for a place in the finals in Japan and South Korea next year.

Australia: Mark Schwarzer; Kevin Muscat (John Aloisi, 58), Craig Moore, Tony Vidmar, Shaun Murphy; Brett Emerton, Paul Okon, Josip Skoko (Marco Bresciano, 73), Stan Lazaridis; Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka

France: Fabien Barthez; Vincent Candela, Claude Makelele (Nicolas Anelka, 67), Frank Leboeuf, Marcel Desailly (Mikael Silvestre, 81); Patrick Vieira, Christian Karembeu, Robert Pires, Zinedine Zidane (Alain Boghossian, 81); David Trezeguet (Eric Carriere, 67), Christophe Dugarry (Sylvain Wiltord, 58)