Football match France - Russia (1999)

The chances of the French national team were assessed much more preferable before the game: despite the second place in the group, the French as world champions were considered favorites, since they had not suffered a single defeat in the group before that moment. Russia was considered an absolute outsider because it lost three starting matches of Euro 2000 qualification. In the starting lineup of the French there were 6 football players who started the 1998 World Cup finals - Barthez , Thuram , Desailly , Deschamps , Petit , Jorkaeff . The main loss of the French was the absence of the best football player in the world in 1998, Zinedine Zidane . The Russian team one of the biggest losses was the absence of Dmitry Alenichev due to a cold. Also, Sergey Juran and Alexander Shirko did not get into the application.

First Half

In the first quarter of the meeting, the Russians did not look very convincing, playing strictly from defense. In the opening, the team tried not to miss a quick goal and storm the opponent’s gate by counterattacks, however, attempts to carry out meaningful attacks over and over again ended in nothing. The three central midfielders of Mostovoy - Titov - Semak could not beat the advantage in the center of the field against the French “fist" Deschamps-Petit-Jorkaeff. In turn, the French besieged the gates of Alexander Filimonov without interruption: the most dangerous moment in the first half was a powerful strike by Yuri Dzhorkaeff, which Alexander parried in front of him, followed by an attempt to finish off Sylvain Viltor . Despite this French trick, Alexander dealt with both blows and kept his goal intact.

Already in the first half, Alexander Mostovoy, who received a microtrauma, asked for a replacement. He was replaced by Dmitry Khokhlov , a mobile and well-playing head, who accelerated the pace of the game and helped Sergei Semak move closer to the line of attack. After this exit, the French began to miss the initiative, and in the 38th minute the first meaningful attack by the Russian team unexpectedly ended in a goal. Valery Karpin broke through the left flank of the French defense and made a pass to Yegor Titov. Titov, in turn, dangerously shot into the penalty area. The ball fell into Vincent Candela’s hand and ricocheted off against Alexander Panov, who took advantage of the absent-mindedness of the French and brought the ball into the goal.

The entire ending of the first half went under the dictation of the guests, which allowed fans to hope to maintain their advantage. The teams left for the break with a score of 1-0 in favor of the Russian team.

Second Half

The first minutes of the second half destroyed the illusion of a stable situation: the Russians unwittingly gave the initiative to the French. This previously happened in matches with Armenia and Belarus . In the 48th minute, a stupid violation of the rules by Yevgeny Varlamov led to a free-kick: Emmanuel Petit shot hard and the ball ricocheted off Sergei Semak’s leg flew into the goal of the Russian team (Semak disoriented Filimonov, who jumped behind the ball into the opposite corner of the goal) . After 5 minutes, Sylvain Wiltor grabbed the ball in the central circle and reached the penalty box of the Russian team at speed, where he sent the ball into the goal and brought the “three-color forward” - 2: 1.

With this account, Oleg Romantsev replaced the tired Sergei Semak with Vladimir Beschastnykh , which was necessary to strengthen the attack. At first, Vladimir did not fit into the game, but eventually began to connect to the programs. At the 72nd minute, Romantsev made the last substitution: instead of Andrei Tikhonov, who played well, Ilya Tsymbalar entered the field, who was not remembered for anything special in the last matches of the Russian championship. However, these substitutions turned the course of the game: in the 75th minute, Dmitry Khlestov corrected himself for a mistake before the first goal of the French, and after intercepting from the central circle he made a distant pass on horseback to Panov. Alexander, having processed and thrown the ball to himself with one touch, left two French defenders at speed, Marcel Desailly failed to prevent Panov in the tackle) and, with a twist, shot into the near corner of Barthez’s goal, scoring the ball with a slight rebound from the post.

At the 85th minute, the guests' efforts were again successful: Viktor Onopko made a pass to the left flank of the move to Vladimir Beschastnykh. He got ahead of the French defender, waited for the second, and gave a pass to Ilya Tsymbalaru, who was rushing into the penalty area. Tsymbalar went almost to the front line and, pausing, made a pass along the goal line a little back. Panov in the fight with the defender fell and did not have time for the ball, however Valery Karpin ran from the right flank and, despite Petya rushing at his feet, hit the goal of the French team with a powerful blow, making the score 3: 2. At the end of the match, the French had an emergency replacement - Yuri Dzhorkaeff received an injury. Despite 4 minutes added by the referee, the Russian team survived and won one of their most famous victories - a victory over the French team, the current world champions.

Match Statistics

According to the newspaper Sport-Express ^[4]

• Before the game, Alexander Fatyushin wrote an accurate forecast on a piece of paper and hid it in an envelope ^[5] .
• The game took place exactly one day before the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin , so some journalists called this match a symbolic revenge "Homeland of Dantes from the descendants of Pushkin" ^[6] . The next day's news releases began precisely with the news of the match that ended, and not with the announcement of the 200th anniversary.
• In the song “My Heart” of the group “ Spleen ” there is a line “I didn’t score to the French”, which is a clear allusion to this match. In one of his interviews, Alexander Panov thanked Alexander Vasiliev for this song ^[7] .

• Match Report on Devil Kulichki
• Match report on the website of the Russian national football team
• Sport-Express: Romantsev returned to Russia her team (inaccessible link)
• For the Motherland! For Pushkin!
• Opinions of Russian football coaches on the eve of the game - Sport Express, June 5, 1999
• Video of dangerous moments of the match on youtube
• Romantsev: “... and then it was the turn of Tsymbalar’s ​​solo number”