October
11, 1995
Romania
1-France 3
UEFA
European Championship Qualifying -Group 1
Venue: Bucharest (Bucuresti),
Ghencea Stadionul (Steaua)
Attendance: 25,000
Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)
Goalscorers: (Romania): Marius Lacatus
52’
(France): Christian Karembeu 28’, Youri
Djorkeff 42’,
Zinedine Zidane 72’
Lineups:
Romania:
1-
Bogdan Gheorghe Stelea (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua- Bucuresti) [30 / 0]
3-
Daniel Claudiu Prodan (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua- Bucuresti) [27 / 1]
2-
Dan Vasile Petrescu (Sheffield Wednesday Football Club / England) [48 / 5]
4-
Gheorge Mihali (En Avant de Guingamp / France) [27
/ 0] (16-Danut Lupu (Rapid
Bucharest) [13 /
0] 46th)
5-
Ioan Angelo Lupescu (Turn und Sportverein Bayer 04 Leverkusen e.V. / Germany) [44 /
5]
6-
Gheorge Popescu (Fútbol
Club Barcelona / Spain) [59 / 3]
7-Marius
Mihai Lacatus (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua- Bucuresti) [71 / 12]
9-Tibor
Selymes (Koninklijke Sportvereniging Cercle Brugge / Belgium) [24 / 0]
8- Ilie Dumitrescu (Tottenham Hotspur Football
Club –London / England) [52 / 18] (17-Ion Vladoui (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei
Steaua- Bucuresti) [15 / 0] 46th)
10-
Gheorge Hagi (Fútbol
Club Barcelona / Spain) [92 / 26]
(15-Basarab
Nica Panduru (Sport Lisboa e Benfica / Portugal) [19
/ 1] 62nd)
11-Dorinel
Ionel Munteanu (1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e.V. / Germany) [42 / 3]
Coach:
Anghel Iordanescu
Booked:
Ion Vladoui 80, Ioan Angelo Lupescu 84
Other
Subs:
12-
Florin Prunea (Fotbal
Club Dinamo Bucuresti)
14- Constantin Galca (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua- Bucuresti)
Team
Captain: Gheorge Hagi
Official
Kit Supplier/Designer: Adidas
Uniform
Colors: Yellow Shirts, Yellow Shorts, Yellow Socks
France:
1- Fabien Barthez (Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club) [2 / 0]
3-
Eric Di Meco (Association
Sportive de Monaco Football Club) [17 / 0]
2- Jocelyn
Angloma (Torino Calcio 1906 / Italy) [28 / 0]
4- Christian Karembeu (Unione Calcio
Sampdoria-Genova / Italy) [10 /
1]
5- Frank Leboeuf (Racing Club de Strasbourg Football) [4 / 2]
7- Didier Deschamps (Juventus Football Club-Torino
/ Italy)
[44 / 3]
8- Marcel Desailly (Associazione Calcio Milan / Italy) [17 / 1]
6- Vincent Guérin (Paris Saint-Germain Football
Club) [8 / 2]
9- Youri Djorkaeff (Paris Saint-Germain Football Club) [12 / 7] (12-Bixente Lizarazu (Football Club des Girondins
de Bordeaux) [16 / 0] 74th)
10- Zinedine Zidane (Football
Club des Girondins de Bordeaux) [7 / 4] (13-Lilian
Thuram (Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club) [6 / 0] 83rd)
11- Christophe Dugarry (Football
Club des Girondins de Bordeaux) [8 / 1] (15-Mikael Madar (Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club) [1 / 0] 62nd)
Coach:
Aimé Jacquet
Booked:
Frank Leboeuf 17, Fabien Barthez 69, Bixente Lizarazu 82
Other
Subs:
16-Bruno Martini (Montpellier-Hérault
Sports Club)
14-Marc Keller (Racing Club de Strasbourg Football)
Team
Captain: Eric Di Meco
Official
Kit Supplier/Designer: Adidas
Uniform
Colors: Blue Shirts, White
Shorts, Red Socks
 |
Photo
From: Kickers Sportsmagazin
(France squad, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier,
Romania 1-France 3) |
Notes:
-Match
number 483 for Romania and number 532 for France.
-This
was the 8th meeting between the nations.
-The
previous match between the nations, as well as the previous match on French
soil, was the first leg of this EC Qualifier at Saint Etienne’s Stade Geoffroy
Guichard on October 8, 1994 that ended scoreless.
Romania
players: Stelea, Petrescu, Prodan, Lupescu, Popescu, Lacatus, Dumitrescu, Panduru,
Hagi and Selymes and French players: Angloma, Lizarazu,
Karembeu,
Desailly,
Zidane, Dugarry and Barthez were present that day (on the field and/or the
substitutes bench).
Gheorge
Hagi still captained Romania.
Romania’s
Ilie Dumitrescu was booked in this match.
Both
sets of managers were still in charge.
-The
next match between the nations, as well as the next French win and next match
on Neutral venue, was only a few months away during the Finals of UEFA European
Championships on June 10, 1996 at Newcastle’s Saint James’ Park that France won 1 to 0.
Romania
players: Stelea, Petrescu, Mihali, Munteanu, Prodan, Lupescu, Popescu, Lacatus,
Prunea, Prodan, Galca, Hagi and Selymes and French players: Angloma, Guérin, Deschamps, Lizarazu,
Thuram, Di Meco, Karembeu, Desailly, Djorkaeff, Zidane, Dugarry, Leboeuf,
Madar, Martini and Barthez were present that day (on the field and/or the
substitutes bench).
Gheorge
Hagi still captained Romania; Didier Deschamps was now the Official Captain of
France.
Christophe
Dugarry scored France’s winner.
Romania’s
Gheorge Mihali and Tibor Selymes and France’s Eric Di Meco were booked in this
match.
Both
sets of managers were still in charge.
-The
previous match between the nations in the same city, as well as Romania’s last
home win (home or otherwise) to date, was a Friendly on April 8, 1972 that
Romania won 2 to 0.
The
Romania Manager Anghel Iordanescu scored Romania’s first goal.
-The next match between the nations on Romanian
soil, was a
World Cup Qualifier on October 11, 2008 that ended in a 2-2 tie.
-The next match between the nations at Bucharest, was a EC Qualifier on
September 6, 2011 that ended in a scoreless tie.
-The next match between the nations on French soil,
was a Friendly
at Saint-Denis’ Stade de France on February 13, 2002 that France won 2 to 1.
Romania
players: Popescu, Munteanu, Stelea and Prodan and France players: Thuram,
Desailly
and Zidane
were present that day (on the field and/or the substitutes bench).
Gheorghe Popescu and Marcel Desailly captained
their respective nations in that match.
Anghel
Iordanescu was in charge of Romania in that match as well.
-France’s
previous win over Romania was a Friendly on March 23, 1974 on Paris’ Parc des
Princes that France won 1 to 0.
The
Romania Manager Anghel Iordanescu played in that match.
France
were managed by Romanian Stefan Kovacs.
-The two teams were in a European Championship
qualifying group that included also Poland, Slovakia, Azerbaijan and Israel.
Going into this match, the Romanians were on top,
with France under pressure from Poland.
-In their previous qualifiers, France had easily
demolished Azerbaijan (10-0) on September 6th, but had nearly lost vs, Poland
at home on August 16th (1-1).
In fact they tied with Poland in the dying stages
of the match and their qualification prospects were far from certain.
-Romania
had built on their 1994 World Cup success and seemed set to qualify and were
more confident.
-Since
taking over from Gerard Houllier in 1994, Aimé Jacquet had a somewhat difficult task in rebuilding. Many of France’s
matches under him had ended in ties and his position seemed weak and there were
calls for his dismissal in French football circles.
In addition, Jacquet had lost his Captain Eric
Cantona, since January 1995, after the infamous ‘Kung-Fu kick’ incident with
his club Manchester United vs. Crystal Palace on January 25, 1995.
His suspension had only ended at the beginning of
the month; as a result, Jacquet did not call him up for this match.
France were in a difficult position and had to
absolutely get a positive result to have any hopes of advancing.
-The French striking duo of veterans Eric Cantona
and Jean-Pierre Papin played their last match for France on January 18, 1995
(Holland 0-France 1).
This
match took 7 days before Cantona’s exclusion following the kicking incident vs.
Crystal Palace.
Eric
Cantona was fined £20,000 and banned from playing football until October and
also lost the captaincy of the French national team.
Cantona
had claimed the fan, Matthew Simmons, had shouted racial insults and had thrown
a missile at him as he was walking off the field after being sent–off for a
foul on another player during a tackle.
-After Cantona’s loss, Jacquet had sought to implement
a system with the Zidane-Djorkaeff combination upfront.
- Romania were missing starters such as Miodrag Beloidedic, Ioan Sabau
and Florin Raducioiu.
In
Addition Ilie Dumitrescu was rarely playing at Tottenham Hotspur and Hagi was
also struggling at Barcelona.
-France were missing Laurent Blanc, Alain Roche,
starting goalkeeper Bernard Lama, Reynald Pedros, David Ginola, Nicolas Ouedec,
Jean-Pierre Papin and Patrice Loko.
Loko had just transferred to Paris St. Germain from
Nantes. On July
20, 1995, he was arrested at Paris for violent behavior after what appeared to
be a nervous breakdown.
He
would miss France’s matches for fall of 1995, as he was going through
counseling and recovery.
Newcastle United’s David Ginola, who was having an excellent season,
was eventually omitted from France team due to his demand for a starter
position.
He
played his last match for France, the previous month vs. Azerbaijan.
Fabien
Barthez deputized for the injured Lama in goal for France. This was only his
second cap.
His
previous and first cap had been on May 26, 1994 vs. Australia (1-0 win) during
the Kirin Cup at Kobe, Japan.
Early
in the year 1995, Barthez had been suspended for two months for using Cannabis.
-France’s
Christian Karembeu was having an excellent season. He had just joined Serie A’s
Sampdoria.
The
previous season he had won the French League with Nantes.
Didier
Deschamps had clinched the double the previous season with Juventus.
Youri
Djorkaeff had just joined Paris St. Gerrmain from AS Monaco.
-Also
missing for France was AS Monaco defender Emanuele Petit, who felt he had been
overlooked, as he was a scapegoat for the failure to qualify for USA 94.
-Despite
its tendency to tie so many matches, France had been unbeaten since Jacquet had
taken over, a run of 15 matches.
-Prior
to the match, Romanian superstar Gheorge Hagi had called into question France’s
tactics. He believed they were not a great team yet.
- Following Eric Cantona’s exclusion from the national team, the France
Manager Aime Jacquet experimented with the captaincy by rotating it from match
to match.
For this match with Romania, he chose Eric Di Meco
as his Captain. He explained that he needed a warrior for such an important
match away from home.
This would be Di Meco’s one and only time as
Captain.
For
France’s previous match on September vs. Azerbaijan, Marcel Desailly had
captained. For the following month, in the crucial qualifier vs. Israel,
Vincent Guerin would Captain his nation.
-Jacquet
chose to start with three defensive midfielders: Didier Deschamps, Vincent
Guerin and Christian Karembeu.
Marcel
Desailly, who had settled to excellent effect in midfield for his club AC
Milan, was pushed back into the center of defense.
Desailly
and Lebouef covered for the missing Blanc and Roche.
The
injury to so many French strikers had paved the way for the selection of AS
Monaco’s then-uncapped Mikael Madar.
Christophe
Dugarry was positioned as sole striker.
 |
Photo
From: Capitaines des bleus depuis 1904, Author Vincent Duluc
(Eric Di Meco, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier,
Romania 1-France 3) |
 |
Photo
From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 82, November 1995
(October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania
1-France 3) |
-Prior
to this match, Romania had not lost a match at Bucharest since 1990 (October 17,
1990, EC Qualifier, Romania 0-Bulgaria 3).
Their
last defeat on home soil had been a meaningless friendly in Brasov in 1991
(August 28, 1991, Romania 0-USA 2)
-
Jacquet had a meeting with the old heads, Deschamps, Desailly, Guerin and Di
Meco. He asked them to guide the young into this crucial match.
-During
the singing of the National Anthems, France’s ‘La Marseillaise’ was booed by
some segment of Romania’s fans.
-Since
were more determined from the opening kick, as they really needed a result. For
Romania, a tie was sufficient to qualify for the Finals; as a result they may
have played with less determination than usual.
 |
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2584, October 17, 1995
(Marcel Desailly, October 11, 1995, EC
Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-France
dominated the first half and had more shots on goal and unsurprisingly led by
two goals.
-In
the 29th minute, Deschamps won a ball in midfield and released it to
Zidane.
Zidane
crossed from the left side into the box for Karembeu who trapped it and
advanced and put it past Stelea.
This
turned out to be Karembeu’s first and only goal for France.
 |
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2584, October 17, 1995
(Christian Karembeu scoring France’s first goal
past Bogdan Stelea, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-In
the 41st minute, Desailly won a ball and advanced laid it on for
Guerin on the left side. Guerin crossed for Dugarry waiting just outside of the
box. He trapped and took a shot that Stelea could only parry and Djorkaeff
tapped it in.
 |
Photo
From: L’Annee du Football, 1996
(Youri Djorkaeff scoring France’s second goal
past Bogdan Stelea, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-After
the break, Romania took off defender Mihali and Dumitrescu and sent on Danut
Lupu and Ion Vladoui for more attacking options. They somewhat raised their
game in this half.
-In
the 51st minute, Stelea kicked a ball upfield that Muntenau
received. He sent a through pass for Lacatus, who dribbled past Barthez and
score.
The
French defense protested that Lacatus might have been marginally offside.
-After
this goal, Romania pressed for an equalizer, but the French defense held firm.
-
The French defense was never in real danger and conceded only three corners
during the entire match.
Fabien
Barthez’s only significant saves were from two free kicks from Hagi.
-France
scored the deciding goal midway through the half.
-In
the 72nd minute, Eric Di Meco tackled a ball that reached Madar on
the left side. The debutant substitute, with plenty of open space ahead of him,
crossed into the right side to Zidane (also with much space).
Zidane
took a hard shot into the top corner of net from a difficult angle and sealed
France’s win.
 |
Photo
From: Le Livre d'or du Football 1996
(Zinedine Zidane scoring France’s third goal,
October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-Afterwards,
the players publicly paid homage to the much-contested Jacquet and his tactics.
Jacquet
was vindicated in his plan to implement the Zidane/Djorkaeff association.
-Jacquet
was pleased his with three defensive midfielders (Deschamps, Guerin, Karembeu)
and stated that he has found his ‘three monsters’ in the middle.
 |
Photo
From: L’Equipe, L’Equipe de France de Football, la Belle Histoire
(October
11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3)
|
-Marcel
Desailly had perhaps been the best player on the field.
By
the time of the Euros he would be the starter in central defense and would
remain so for the rest of his France career.
By
the Euros, Laurent Blanc would also be back in the French set-up and they would
form the central defensive rock of France’s glorious generation.
Laurent Blanc himself would go through a resurrection of
sorts that season with Auxerre and win back his France spot.
 |
Photo
From: World Soccer, December 1995
(Dan Petrescu and Zinedine Zidane, October 11,
1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
 |
Photo
From: Onze-Mondial, Hors Serie 23, May 1996
(Youri Djorkaeff, October 11, 1995, EC
Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-Young
striker Christophe Dugarry also played his best match for France (up until
then) and was praised.
-The
theme in the French press was that a ‘team was born in Bucharest’.
This
match was later described by experts/observers/players/etc as the pivotal
turning point in the birth of the golden age of the French national team of
late 90’s and early 2000’s.
It
is described as that Generations’ ‘Match de Reference’.
-The
following on November 15th, both nations qualified for the 1996
Euros in England.
France
defeated Israel at home (2-0), while Romania defeated Slovakia away (2-0).
Romania
won the group outright with 21 points followed by France (20 points).
Slovakia
were a distant third with 14 points.
 |
Photo
From: L’Equipe, L’Equipe de France de Football, la Belle Histoire
(Dan
Petrescu and International debutant Mickael Madar, October 11, 1995, EC
Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3)
|
-France
players: Angloma, Di Meco, Leboeuf, Guerin, Deschamps, Desailly, Djorkaeff,
Zidane, Lizarazu, Dugarry, Thuram, Barthez, Madar, Karembeu and Martini made
the Euros Finals squad.
By
the time of the Tournament, Thuram and Lizarazu had established themselves as
starters in the outside back positions ahead of Angloma and Di Meco.
Prior
to the Tournament, Jacquet appointed Didier Deschamps as the official Team
captain and he would remain fro the rest of his France career.
He
is the current national team Manager.
 |
Photo
From: L’Equipe, L’Equipe de France de Football, la Belle Histoire
(Marcel Desailly, October 11, 1995, EC
Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-
Jacquet chose not to call upon Eric Cantona again following the end of his
suspension, satisfied with the partnership of Zinedine Zidane and Youri
Djorkaeff for Euro 96 and specially the 1998 World Cup in mind.
David
Ginola was similarly omitted from the squad.
Cantona
and Ginola were ironically the two English based players and both had and
excellent season in the run up to the finals tournament.
-On May 27, 1996, Ilie
Dumitrescu was withdrawn from the Euro Finals squad due to injury.
-Romania
players: Stelea, Prunea, Petrescu, Prodan, Mihali, Selymes, Hagi, Lupescu,
Popescu, Galca, Munteanu, Lacatus and Vladoiu made the Euros Finals squad.
-The
two teams would be paired in the same Group in the Euros. France won that match
(1-0) as stated earlier.
-Didier
Deschamps won the Champions League that season with Juventus.
Marcel Desailly triumphed in the Italian League
with AC Milan.
Vincent
Guérin and Youri Djorkaeff won the Cup Winners Cup with Paris Saint-Germain
Football Club.
- Vincent Guérin was elected as the French Player of the year for 1995.
 |
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2584, October 17, 1995
(Vincent
Guerin, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3)
|
-France
and Aime Jacquet’s unbeaten run ended after 31 matches. His first loss was in
November 1996 vs. Denmark.
The
last match prior that France had lost was the November 17, 1993 qualifier
against Bulgaria.
(Note:
France lost on a penalty kick shoot-out in the Euros vs. Czech republic, but
the match had officially ended as a scoreless tie).
- Danut Lupu’s next and final cap would a friendly on March 18, 1998 at
the same venue (Romania 0-Israel 1)
 |
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2584, October 17, 1995
(Christophe
Dugarry, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3)
|
-Steaua
Bucharest players: Stelea, Prodan, Lacatus, Vladoui
and Galca had won the Romanian League title the previous season and would also
win it that season.
- Romanian defender Gheorge Mihali was playing for French club En Avant de Guingamp.
 |
Photo
From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 89, June 1996
(Christophe Dugarry, October 11, 1995, EC
Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-Ilie Dumitrescu would transfer to West Ham United
in a matter of months.
-France’s Bordeaux trio : Lizarazu, Zidane
and Dugarry starred in their UEFA Cup run that included teh elimination of AC
Milan. They reached teh Final but lost to Bayern Munich.
 |
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2584, October 17, 1995
(Christian
Karembeu, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3)
|
-During the season, the landmark Bosman Ruling
occured. At the end of the season many French players joined foreign clubs.:
Angloma (Valencia), Leboeuf (Chelsea), Djorkaeff
(Internazionale Milano), Lizarazu (Athletic Bilbao), Zidane (Juventus), Thuram
(Parma), Dugary (AC Milan), Madar (Deportivo La Coruna) and Keller (West Ham
United).
The Popescu and Hagi joined
Galatasaray.
 |
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2584, October 17, 1995
(Youri Djorkaeff with Didier Deschamps in the
background, October 11, 1995, EC Qualifier, Romania 1-France 3) |
-France
players: Lizarazu, Djorkaeff, Deschamps, Desailly, Thuram, Barthez, Leboeuf,
Karembeu and Dugarry were part of France’s victorious World Cup winning squad
of 1998, as well as the 2000 UEFA European.
Championships.
-Anghel
Iordanescu won the 1986 Champions Cup with Lacatus as a teammate.
-Deschamps,
Di Meco, Angloma, Barthez and Desailly won the 1993 Champions League with
Olympique Marseille.
Deschamps
(Juventus 1996), Desailly (AC Milan 1994), Karembeu (Real Madrid 1998),
Lizarazu (Bayern Munich 2001) and Zidane (Real Madrid 2002) also won the trophy
in their careers.
Match Reports:
