FRA: Youri Djorkaeff (48).

SPA: Jose Luis Caminero (85).

FRA: Lama 6; Angloma 5.5 (Roche, 65), Blanc 6.5, Desailly 6.5, Lizarazu 6; Karembeu 6.5, Deschamps 6, Guerin 6 (Thuram, 80), Zidane 5.5, Djorkaeff 6; Loko 5 (Dugarry, 73).

SPA: Zubizarreta 6; Otero 5.5 (Kiko, 59 - 6.5), Lopez 7, Abelardo 5, Alkorta 5, Sergi 5; Hierro 5, Luis Enrique 5 (Manjarin, 55 - 6), CAMINERO 7.5, Amavisca 5; Alfonso 4.5 (Julio Salinas, 83).

REFEREE: Vadim Zhuk (Belarus).

AUDIENCE: 39.000, Elland Road, Leeds.

YELLOW CARDS: Blanc, Karembeu, Djorkaeff (France); Luis Enrique, Otero, Amavisca (Spain).

RED CARDS: NONE.

The old Russian proverb says: "Never expect too much, and you will never be disappointed". That's hard to follow it, as the man's nature is to hope for good. However, yesterday it was the case again - we've expected much from the meeting between two major European soccer powers, but the only person equal to the hoped for level was ... the referee Vadim Zhuk. In general, France was better most of the time, but the unexplicable retreat during the last 30 minutes made it concede an equalizer and seek to preserve a draw later on.

The game started with two attacks - after 4 minutes, Lizarazu was fouled 18 meters from the Spanish net, but Zidane earned just a corner from a free kick, and on the other side, Caminero (6) was denied in the French box by Blanc. Then, it was a draught of 18 minutes to be broken by Vincent Guerin - Patrice Loko left him the ball, and Guerin shot a flat ball from 18 meters to the right corner of Zubizarreta; the keeper reacted well enough to parry it to a corner.

Zidane shot a curved diagonal ball, passing near the left post of Zubizarreta (28), and the scissors kicks' combination of Loko and Karembeu (34) sent the ball to Zubizarreta's hands. Lama took the balls of Hierro (36) and Enrique (45), Sergi shot it high (38) and so did Hierro (44). But after the break, we finally saw the goal - Karembeu (48) sent a wonderful ball to Djorkaeff, the latter entered the box and rolled it past Zubizarreta, 1:0 to France.

Lama got out of the net to deny Sergi (58), and the ball of Hierro (60) went wide. Amavisca shot a wonderful ball (78), stopped again by Lama. Alfonso failed to reach the wide shot sent by Kiko (79), and Hierro found Lama again (84). On the other hand, Zidane shot it high after a wonderful counterattack of Djorkaeff and Loko; Zubizarreta took Djorkaeff's shot (74), and Dugarry headed it wide (81) after the pass of the same Djorkaeff.

Both teams attacked, but the Spanish squad was closer. And it reached the equalizer. Manjarin collected the ball in the French box and passed it to Caminero, who shot it from 14 meters. Lama flew to touch the ball, but nothing more. 1:1. The Group B is complicated and tough.

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