The only thing more frustrating than watching the opposition waste time by the corner flag is watching your own players do the opposite. When Manchester United were knocked out of the Capitol One Cup last month, Sir Alex Ferguson blamed Nani for failing to retain possession and run down the clock. Ferguson's young centre-backs had conceded a 94th-minute equaliser and gifted Chelsea a goal in extra-time, but his ire was directed at the flashy winger rather than his shaky defence. Gerard Houllier took the same approach 19 years ago, when David Ginola attempted to cross the ball to Eric Cantona in the 90th minute of a World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria.
France had been almost certain to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, but a shock defeat at home to Israel set up a showdown against Bulgaria at the Parc de Princes. When they met on the night of November 17, 1993, France needed a draw and Bulgaria needed to win. Eric Cantona gave France the lead on the half-hour mark with a typical volley, but Emil Kostadinov equalised five minutes later. France held on until the 90th minute, when Ginola, who had been brought on as a late sub for Jean-Pierre Papin, had the ball by the corner flag.
Ginola's wildly overhit cross fell to the feet of the Bulgaria left-back, Emil Kremenliev. With no time to spare, Bulgaria worked the ball up the pitch to Lubo Penev, who chipped the ball over the France backline and into the stride of Kostadinov. The forward took the ball down with his first touch, steadied himself with his second and lashed it into Bernard Lama's net with his third. Bulgaria were on their way to the USA. France were out and the feud between Ginola and Houllier was about to begin.
Hristo Stoichkov thought the hosts had bottled it. "The French were so scared they played with their buttocks clenched. We knew that's how they would be and our tactics were based on that. They played for a draw and never went looking for a win. They didn't deserve to qualify and we hit them where it hurt most."
Didier Deschamps, who would go on to captain France in 1998, said the failure was collective: "We've made real asses of ourselves." Gerard Houllier, who described the night as "the most catastrophic scenario imaginable", disagreed. The France manager singled out Ginola for criticism, accusing him of being "the murderer" of French hopes: "He sent an Exocet missile through the heart of French football and committed a crime against the team."
Anger as late Bulgaria goal robs French of ticket to US
Paul Webster reported on the reaction in Paris for the Guardian on November 19
All the energy that would otherwise have been spent celebrating France's qualification was diverted yesterday into nationwide anger at a team that threw away their ticket to the United States in the dying seconds of the decisive game with Bulgaria at the Parc des Princes.
It was not necessary to have watched the previous evening's match to know that France had lost. An almost deathly silence descended over traditional areas of celebration such as the Champs Elysees, where waiters had already assembled the champagne before Bulgaria scored the second goal in a 2-1 victory.
As the argument started over whether to sack the manager Gerard Houllier, the cruellest summing-up came from the newspaper France-Soir, which linked the national side's failure to scandals involving the European champion club Marseille.
'If the national team is the showcase of French football then there has been no deception over the goods on show,' the paper said. 'Rocked by scandals and cowardice, undermined by crooks and buried under mounds of money, football is being dragged into disgrace.'
The rest of the press sounded like the angry crowd baying for the blood of the referee, who let the match run on for a fateful extra minute or two after the final whistle was due. Headline writers searched for the most damaging word, ranging from zero to catastrophe.
L'Equipe, the sports daily, said that the national stars had stupidly let Bulgaria take the initiative in the last minute in a way that not even a village team would have. Almost exactly the same had happened in the previous match, when France were less than two minutes away from a place in the finals when they allowed Israel to score the winning goal.
But the chairman of the league, Noel Le Graet, said it would be shameful to sack the manager and he would be allowed to complete his contract, which ends in June next year. 'Frankly, the whole national committee is in a state of shock,' Le Graet said. 'This is like some terrible horror story.'
With the defeat continuing to make the headline news on television and radio throughout yesterday, nearly every commentator signed off by seeking consolation in England's elimination and the fact that no British team would be going.
French farce that has brought only anguish
Jonathan Fenby covered the story for the Observer on November 21
Four days after being eliminated from the World Cup, France is still in shock. The players might have looked none too confident as they faced Bulgaria on Wednesday, but their passage to America had been taken for granted.
The prospect of failing to get a single point from home games against Israel and Bulgaria was unthinkable to a country which believed it had a world-class team. But Bulgaria's last-minute goal made the unthinkable reality, and the whole shape of French football may now be brought into question.
After their poor performance in the last European Championship, the French team saw the World Cup as the chance to make their mark on the international stage. The timing seemed perfect, as players such as Cantona, Papin, Sauzee and Desailly hit top form before losing unexpectedly to Israel. Even that was not sufficient warning for a country that regarded its absence from the last World Cup as an aberration.
Hence the depth of the shock of Wednesday's 2-1 defeat, described by one footballing administrator as 'Hiroshima'. As captain, Papin said he could not understand what had happened. It looked simple enough to everybody else: the team were simply not good enough.
There could be no greater blow to national pride, but two men with greatest reason to hang their heads seemed almost sanguine amid the national hangover. The head of the national federation, Jean Fournet-Fayard, made it plain he was not going to be rushed into resigning, while the national manager, Gerard Houllier, talked philosophically of the ups and downs of his profession.
Whether the two men will be allowed to keep their jobs is another matter. The sports minister may intervene, and the press is baying for blood, pointing to the accumulation of problems facing the French game.
Gerard Houllier v David Ginola
In the post-match press conference, Houllier said he would keep his job: "My contract lasts through the end of 1994. I'm going back to work." His confidence was misplaced. He was replaced by his assistant, Aime Jacquet, who would go on to win the 1998 World Cup final in Paris in his last game as a manager.
Houllier was left to stew in his failure. He has never forgiven Ginola. When Houllier resigned, he left with a parting shot at the player: "The adventure is over all too soon. With only 30 seconds remaining we were there but we got stabbed in the back and at the worst possible time. The referee still had his whistle to his mouth when Ginola won that free-kick near the corner flag, but then he goes and sends in a huge 60-metre cross instead of hanging on to the ball. That allowed Bulgaria to go and hit us on the counter."
Over the years Ginola has admitted that the criticism from his former manager stung. "It is something which will haunt me for the rest of my life," he wrote in his autobiography in 2000. "I believe a weaker person would have been destroyed. My 'crime' was to overhit a cross aimed for Eric Cantona." In an interview given to Richard Williams to publicise the book, Ginola admitted his sadness that France had won the World Cup in 1998: "It was fantastic for the French people, but on the other hand, from a personal point of view, it was terrible."
When speaking to the Observer six years later, Ginola seemed to have reached resolution on the matter: "The whole thing is such a long time ago I don't care any more. I didn't kill anyone. I made a mistake on the pitch. Since then France have won the World Cup and the European Championship so it's an old story. I'm now able to put things in perspective."
Houllier repeated his criticism of Ginola last year in the book Secrets de coachs, which opened up old sores. "David is absolutely incensed," said his spokesman. "Houllier should stop talking like this. Stop singling David out." Florian Sanchez, who edited the book, admitted: "Two years ago, Houllier criticised Ginola on French television. David showed him the yellow card then, and warned him not to continue. Now he is showing him the red." Ginola pursued legal action, but his lawsuit for slander and defamation was dismissed by the French court in April. The feud continues.
Bulgaria's finest World Cup
Bulgaria qualified for the World Cup behind Sweden, who won Group 6. They lost their first group game to Nigeria, but qualified for the last 16 after victories over Greece and Argentina. Argentina had led the group as the final set of games went into injury time, but a 91st-minute goal from Nasko Sirakov took Bulgaria through.
Bulgaria squeezed past Mexico on penalties in the last 16 and beat Germany 2-1 in the quarter-finals, before losing to an Italy team inspired by Roberto Baggio in the semi-finals. They finished the tournament in fourth place after a 4-0 defeat to Sweden in the third-place playoff. Sweden scored all four of their goals in the first half. Hristo Stoichkov shared the Golden Boot with Oleg Salenko of Russia, and won the 1994 Ballon d'Or. In a golden era for Bulgarian football, Yordan Letchkov was briefly the world's most celebrated bald man.
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