GER: Matthias Sammer (56), Juergen Klinsmann (77, 90).

RUS: -.

GER: Koepke 6; Helmer 6, Sammer 6.5, Babbel 6, Reuter 6, Ziege 6; Eilts 6, Haessler 6 (Freund, 66), Moeller 6.5 (Strunz, 87); KLINSMANN 6.5, Bierhoff 5.5 (Kuntz, 85).

RUS: Kharine 5; Nikiforov 5.5, Kovtun (RED, 71), Onopko 5.5; Tetradze 6, Kanchelskis 4.5, Khokhlov 4.5 (Simutenkov, 65), Mostovoi 5.5, Radimov 5 (Karpine, 46 - 4), Tsymbalar 5.5; Kolyvanov 5.

REFEREE: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark).

AUDIENCE: 50.670, Old Trafford, Manchester.

YELLOW CARDS: Babbel, Bierhoff (Germany); Kanchelskis, Kovtun, Onopko (Russia).

RED CARDS: NONE (Germany); Yuriy Kovtun (Russia).

When asked about his schedule for the election day, the Russian President Boris Yeltsin replied: "First of all, I'll vote, then <...>, and in the evening, I'll watch the important game between Russia and Germany. As well as in the elections, we can't lose there." Now we can say - had the elections passed for Yeltsin as well as the Russian team played against Germany, the Cold War would have already restarted.

The Russians have a problem, as they played like a very good team in the 1st half, but were completely broken after the break; a problem even the Israeli team seems to have overcome by now. On the other hand, the Germans play enjoyable soccer, and are the only team besides Croatia to collect all the points by now. Those two, Croatia and Germany, seem to be the most possible winners of the tournament, according to what we've seen now.

The 1st half started with the two German attacks, as Oliver Bierhoff (1) shot high, and a fantastic header of Andy Moeller (4) from 10 meters was parried superbly by Dmitriy Kharine. The Russian opportunity arrived immediately: Tsymbalar shot a surprising ball to the left post of Koepke (8), and Kolyvanov was on the rebound with a flying header; Koepke managed to deny it. All the rest of shots, from both sides, missed the frame - Babbel (10), Kovtun (18), Eilts (20), Klinsmann (28), Radimov (33), Moeller (34).

The controversial moment occurred after 42 minutes, when Mostovoi entered the box in a wonderful Russian counterattack and was denied by Koepke. The replay showed there'd been a place for penalty kick, but the referee didn't whistle.

After the break, the free kick of Mostovoi (49) was very close to the left crossbar of Koepke. But the goal came on the other side. Matthias Sammer (56) rushed into the box and shot a bomb; Kharine parried it badly, and in the confusion created Sammer himself knelt and pushed the ball inside, 1:0.

The Germans started pressing, and the Russians were mentally broken, especially after the 2nd yellow card shown to Yuriy Kovtun. And here Klinsmann showed his tremendous skill. After 77 minutes, he misled Yuriy Nikiforov in a wonderful way, entered the box and shot with an external side of his right foot to the right high corner of Kharine who didn't move, 2:0. After Bierhoff (85) and Strunz (88) failed to find the net, Klinsmann stroke again - in the dying seconds, he used a wonderful preparation work of Kuntz to roll the ball past the helpless Kharine from inside the box. The interesting thing after the game of two different planets is that still, in theory, neither Germany is secure in the quarterfinals nor the Russians are helplessly out.

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