June 18th

Bittered French Victory by Harsh Referee

18th June, the second day for Group C four countries, was to be the significant turning point of World Cup 98 France.

At Toulouse, Denmark dominated in the first half against South Africa, with the superb goal by Allan Nielsen from Brian Laudrup's clever cross, and looked to the second victory of the tournament very comfortably.

But then, the Municipal heat recorded by over 30 centigrade temperature gradually carried away both eleven's physical strength as well as mind endurence, things turned totally different in the second half.

Just after Benny McCarthy scored the equlizer at 57th minute, the immence counterblow came from South Africans, who were desparately to avoid the second defeat, Colombian referee Toro Rendon eventually showed 5 yellow cards and 3 red cards. Was it so because a few days ago the tournament commitee directed the referees to show more dignities? Was it a sarcasm that both eleven praised, or to consoled, one another after the match ?

The second match of the day, where France crushed Saudi Arabia with hilariously fantastic goals by Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Bixente Lizarazu, also gave to the audience of La Stade de France, Saint-Denis, a huge anxiety when their top hero Zinedine Zidane was sent off by Mexican referee Brizio Carter. Mr.Carter pointed out 4 cautions as well during the match.

Scorers

[S] McCarthy:52min.

[D] Nielsen:13min.

Fish

Radebe(Capt.)

Issa

Colding

Rieper

Hogh

Schjonberg(Wieghorst:82min.)

Nyathi(Buckley:89min.)

Fortune

Augustine(Phiri:46min.)

Moshoeu

Mkhalele

Nielsen

Helveg

Jorgensen

M.Laudrup(Capt.)(Heintze:58min.)

McCarthy

Bartlett(Masinga:78min.)

Sand(Molner:58min.)

B.Laudrup

Scorers

[F] Henry:36min.,77min., Trezeguet:68min., Lizarazu:85min.

Thuram

Blanc

Desailly

Lizarazu

Al Jahani(A.AL Dosari:76min.)

Zebramawi

AL Khlaiwi

Slimani

Boghossian

Deschamps(Capt.)

Zidane

Diomede(Djorkaeff:58min.)

Saleh

K.Al Dosari

Amin(Capt.)

Al Shahrani

Angibeaud

Henry(Pires:78min.)

Dugarry(Trezeguet:29min.)

S.Al Owairan(Al Harbi:33min.→Al Mowalad:63min.)

Al Jaber