FRA: Christophe Dugarry (24).

ROM: -.

FRA: Lama 6.5; THURAM 7.5, Desailly 7, Blanc 6.5, Di Meco 5.5 (Lizarazu, 68); Karembeu 7, Guerin 6, Deschamps 7, Zidane 7 (Roche, 79); Djorkaeff 7, Dugarry 6 (Loko, 68).

ROM: Stelea 6; Petrescu 5.5 (Filipescu, 77), Belodedici 5.5, Mihali 5.5, Munteanu 5.5; Popescu 5, Lupescu 5.5, Selimes 5, Hagi 6.5; Lacatus 6 (Ilie, 56 - 5.5), Raducioiu 4.5 (Moldovan, 46 - 6).

REFEREE: Helmut Krug (Germany).

AUDIENCE: 36.000, St. James' Park, Newcastle.

YELLOW CARDS: Di Meco (France), Dugarry; Mihali, Selimes, Ilie (Romania).

RED CARDS: NONE.

When the responsibility is high, the only mistake made will make you cursed, despite the good performance you give. This was the destiny of Helmut Krug yesterday, who didn't award an obvious penalty kick in favor of Romania. But most of all, this was the fate of Bogdan Stelea in Romania's net - several good saves of his should be mentioned here, but nobody would forget him the French goal. And certainly not Anghel Iordanescu who threw him away from an opening squad towards the game vs Bulgaria.

In whole, France was better yesterday. It had a better defensive line, and Bernard Lama was secure and reliable, even though yesterday he had quite a few work to do. And in the front line, Romania had the brilliance of Hagi and Lacatus, but France answered with its "Italians": the penetrations of Desailly, the danger coming from Karembeu, Deschamps and Zidane, and most of all, the virtuosity of Youri Djorkaeff. Even reminding a little bit in his appearance the one of Haim Revivo, Djorkaeff is to France what Revivo is to Maccabee Haifa - its engine, its brain, its conductor; his creativity gave France a lot of chances, and once resulted in a winner.

The cannons started talking after 20 minutes, when Lama collected the far-ranger of Lacatus. 2 minutes have passed, and Djorkaeff shot a bright volley in half a turn from 25 meters, parried well by Stelea. But the next attempt of Djorkaeff resulted in a goal - his bounce into the box found the head of Christophe Dugarry, and the latter headed it home above Popescu and Stelea. Considering the fact that the header had been performed 14 meters from the net, it was a terrible mistake of Stelea to be punished.

The ping-pong continued. Stelea collected the free kick of Djorkaeff (27), and the shot of Hagi after a good personal effort was collected by Lama (28). Hagi managed also to shoot near the post (30), and Djorkaeff made a pass to the fantastic volley of Didier Deschamps from 25 meters, several centimeters near the right post of Stelea. The last effort of the 1st half was again of Djorkaeff, who shot from a far range to the hands of Stelea.

54 minutes gone, Krug made a crucial mistake. Moldovan entered the box and was pushed down by Desailly, with no referee's reaction. A minute afterwards, Karembeu shot a volley wide from the corner kick of Djorkaeff. Stelea grasped the ball before Dugarry (58) and Djorkaeff (64), and Hagi shot a wonderful curved free kick, collected by Lama. Loko (68) passed 2 players in a wonderful slalom and shot the ball near the right post of Stelea.

The ping-pong went on. Blanc managed to block Moldovan (70), and Zidane (71) shot a wonderful curved free kick, parried well by Stelea. A shot of Moldovan (81) went high, and Mihali stopped Loko before the net (84). Ilie tried his luck with a handball (89), and was rightly booked for that. The last trial belonged to Popescu (90) who shot high from a free kick, 25 meters from the net. Romania should do the homework before it's too late.

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