FRA: -.
PENALTIES (second): Zinedine Zidane 1:1, Youri Djorkaeff 2:2, Bixente Lizarazu 3:3, Vincent Guerin 4:3, Laurent Blanc 5:4.

NED: -.
PENALTIES (first): Johahn De Kock 1:0, Ronald De Boer 2:1, Patrick Kluivert 3:2, Clarence Seedorf 3:3 (Bernard Lama), Danny Blind 4:4.

FRA: Lama 6.5; Thuram 6.5, BLANC 7, Desailly 6.5, Lizarazu 6; Karembeu 6.5, Deschamps 6, Guerin 6, Zidane 5.5, Djorkaeff 6; Loko 5 (Dugarry, 62) (Pedros, 80 - 5.5).

NED: van der Sar 7; Reisiger 6, De Kock 6, Blind 6, Bogarde 6; R. de Boer 6, Witschge 6 (Mulder, 80 - 6), Bergkamp 5 (Seedorf, 60 - 6); Jordi 5.5 (Winter, 69 - 6), Kluivert 6, Cocu 6.

REFEREE: Antonio Lopez Nieto (Spain).

AUDIENCE: 37.465, Anfield, Liverpool.

YELLOW CARDS: Deschamps, Karembeu (France); De Kock, Kluivert, Bogarde (Netherlands).

RED CARDS: NONE.

The first day of the quarterfinals brought us a certain disappointment - two nil draws, and the new rule of "The Golden Ball" ("The Sudden Death") still remains unused. But if the first game between England and Spain brought us a lot of exciting moments and was of the best quality despite the lack of goals, this game was an example of tactics in the bad meaning of the word. Too few moments to be remembered, too little skill to be shown. And let me put it this way - if both England and Spain deserve to be in the semifinals according to what they have showed yesterday, then neither Holland nor France deserved this place.

Still, France deserved to advance more than Holland, not because of its skill but because of its sportsmanship. When Clarence Seedorf missed the penalty kick, the only white player of Holland to console him was Jordi Cruyff, having the sportsmanship in his genes. The French players, Bernard Lama and Christian Karembeu, went to console the crying Seedorf too, but neither Ronald de Boer nor Dennis Bergkamp, Danny Blind, Richard Witschge or Edvin van der Sar were around to support the misser. The lack of sportsmanship and the interracial split do not go together with sports. That's about time for the Dutch squad to learn it, at the end of the second millennium.

Despite all the above-said, Holland can be disappointed up to a certain extent, as it was a slightly better team on the pitch, with the lessons of England learnt. France, on the other hand, was the shadow of itself, especially Youri Djorkaeff; just the defence did its job well. With 7 minutes gone, Lizarazu managed to deny Bergkamp; Kluivert (19) missed the ball prepared by Cocu, and Ronald de Boer (22) headed it high, failing to use the mistake of Bernard Lama. Bergkamp (29) and Cocu (45) tried their luck with far-rangers, in vain. On the other hand, Karembeu (23) and Djorkaeff (36) missed the frame, and Loko hit it weakly to the hands of van der Sar (28). The best move of the first half was also of Loko (39), who stopped the ball on the chest inside the box, turned around Bogarde momentarily and shot from the air near the right post of the Dutch.

In the 2nd half, Guerin (47) missed the frame, van der Sar denied the dangerous shots of Dugarry (67) and Zidane (67), and a brilliantly taken free kick of Zidane (63) missed by centimeters the right high corner of the Dutch. Dugarry turned out to be the tragic figure of the game, before a miss of Seedorf - having come on the pitch as a substitute, he was injured and substituted just after 18 minutes, and France stayed, as a matter of fact, with no natural attackers at all. Holland used it to press and to get 2 marvellous opportunities.

Desailly (84) used his hands in the box; the Spanish referee Antonio Lopez Nieto (still, with quite a good performance, compared to other referees in EC'96) made a mistake, seeing the hand, but awarding just a free kick on the box line. The free kick was performed by Cocu, the ball hit Blanc, deflected to the left post of Lama and went out to a corner. And after 5 more minutes, the golden opportunity to finish the story was wasted - Seedorf used the great preparation of Youri Mulder to penetrate into the box, but his shot was denied by Bernard Lama's leg to a corner, a great job done here by the French keeper.

In the extra-time, Lama managed to grasp a great shot by Winter from the hard angle (107), but France was better, thanks to the sudden awakening of both Zidane and Djorkaeff. After 105 minutes, Zidane entered the box and rolled it to Djorkaeff; the latter fell to touch the ball 5 meters from the net, but van der Sar sprang from nowhere and sent it to a corner, "The Save Of The Game". A wonderful shot of Djorkaeff (109) was denied by van der Sar. Then, we've seen "The Move Of The Game" - Djorkaeff managed to pass 4 players in a fabulous run, had a double pass with Zidane and was knocked down before the box; however, his free kick went high. Finally, the last opportunity was of Zidane (119) who shot it wide after the assist of Guerin.

The penalty shoot-out came. Johann De Kock shot a centered bomb, the ball hit the bar and went in, 1:0 to Holland. Zidane managed to shoot the flat ball to the right corner of van der Sar despite the desperate flight of the latter, 1:1. De Boer misled Lama, shooting flatly to the keeper's right corner, 2:1. That was coolly mirrored by Djorkaeff, 2:2. Kluivert shot a flat ball to the right of Lama, and the keeper's flight didn't help, 3:2. Lizarazu came with his left and shot to the left of van der Sar; the keeper seemed to reach the ball, but it was too precise, 3:3. And here came Clarence Seedorf, who shot a weak ball into the center of the net; Lama went to his left, but managed to throw his hands back to the center and to parry the ball, still 3:3.

Vincent Guerin had now all the eyes on him, and he shot a strong ball to his left, above the hands of a desperately flying van der Sar, 4:3. Danny Blind managed to beat Lama with a well-performed shot to Lama's right; the keeper took the direction but could do nothing, 4:4. And here came Laurent Blanc with a winner. A weak but clever shot to his right, with van der Sar going to his own right. 5:4, and France advanced.

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