French team’s final resistance will be hampered by loss of Blanc, who falls victim to the dreaded red card.

It took a long month, but at last, the color scheme of the team that will lose to Brazil in the final of the 1998 World Cup has been determined.

Bleu.

Rouge.

But no Blanc.

For the first time, France is through to the championship round of the World Cup, leaving behind more than six decades of underachievement, three previous heartbreaks in the semifinals and, most unfortunately for the home team, one massively inspirational defender.

Laurent Blanc, quite possibly the most valuable player in France’s dogged ascension to Sunday’s final, won’t be anywhere on the field within shin-bruising distance of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Denilson--where he is vitally needed.

Blanc, who scored the winning goal in the 114th minute against Paraguay and converted the final penalty kick that eliminated Italy, added to his dossier the open-palmed shove to the face of Croatia’s Slaven Bilic in the 74th minute Wednesday--earning him a red-card ejection that automatically disqualifies him for the final against Brazil.

It was a pointless and thoughtless foul, coming only five minutes after Lilian Thuram’s second goal had given France a 2-1 lead in its semifinal with Croatia.

Bilic, the mouth that runs and runs for Croatia, had been popping off all evening. At one contentious point in the first half, Bilic, who plays for Everton in the English Premier League, could be seen on press-row television monitors clearly calling France midfielder Emmanuel Petit a vulgar British colloquialism. Clearly, Bilic’s intent was to goad French resistance into some retaliatory rash act.

With Blanc, he finally succeeded.

Blanc went at Bilic’s face as if he were trying to squeeze juice from a half grapefruit. Place palm here, give a firm twist to the right.

Referee Jose Garcia-Aranda saw it all and immediately reached for a card.

“I expected a yellow,” Blanc acknowledged.

Garcia-Aranda upped it a shade, producing the dread carton rouge, and France’s most accomplished sweeper, the quarterback of the French defense, was done for the tournament.

“Bilic was provoking me all match,” said Blanc, who disputed the harshness of Garcia-Aranda’s ruling.

“I was surprised by the red card,” he said. “I watched the rest of the game from the dressing room, but I wasn’t scared for my team.”

Germany had disintegrated against Croatia after Christian Worns was red-carded in last weekend’s quarterfinal in Lyon. Playing with 10 men, the Germans yielded three second-half goals en route to their worst World Cup defeat in 40 years.

France, with younger legs, had the speed and the stamina to hold off Croatia for the final 16 minutes. Short-term crisis averted, longer-term damage to be assessed Sunday, when the Brazilians set about pressing and testing a French defense lacking its customary leader.

So big a loss is Blanc that France Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, in attendance at Stade de France on Wednesday, was moved to comment on the situation.

“We’ll miss Blanc,” Jospin declared. “It’s sad. But with every match, we’ve survived. I don’t see any reason for us not to win the World Cup.”

France Coach Aime Jacquet was not so quick to break out the what-moi-worry? spin.

“The sending off of Laurent Blanc hit us hard,” Jacquet said. “Before then, we had been on top, but the end of the game was very difficult.

“I don’t know what happened in the incident--I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll have to look at the video. But, of course, it is going to be a problem for us.”

Had this happened earlier in the tournament, Brazil, very likely, would be playing Italy or--Platini help us--Paraguay for the title. Blanc was the only player to score for France in the run of play for 114 minutes against Paraguay plus 120 minutes against Italy plus the first 46 minutes against Croatia.

His goal against Paraguay saved France from the distinct possibility of hitting the thick wall known as Jose Luis Chilavert in penalties and going out in the second round.

His blast past Gianluca Pagliuca in last weekend’s shootout spared the world the fingernails-on-the-blackboard experience of watching Italy and Croatia backpedal for 120 minutes in what might have been the first shotless World Cup semifinal.

Now Blanc is gone and France is on its own against the irrepressible Ronaldo-Rivaldo-Bebeto samba line.

“This is not a catastrophe for the team,” Blanc insisted, perhaps trying aloud to convince himself. “But it is for me.

“It’s like having a birthday and someone gives you a big cake and then takes it away.”

And then having to watch the big kids in the yellow shirts gobble up every last slice.