From: dvlkhh@cs.umu.se (Kent Hedlundh)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer,soc.culture.french
Subject: CWC: semifinal - Feyenoord-Monaco
Date: 16 Apr 92 10:59:02 GMT
Organization: Dep. of Info.Proc, Umea Univ., Sweden


    Cup Winners' Cup, semifinal 2nd leg
    Played the 15th of April 1992
    At De Kuip in Rotterdam

         FEYENOORD      2              AS MONACO      2 :-) :-)
           Witschge '52                  Weah '33
           Damasjin '88                  Rui Barros '51
         Att.: 48000
              (Aggregate score: 3-3 - Monaco advance on away goals)

         First a look at the line-ups:

    Feyenoord: De Goey; Van Gobbel, Metgod, Fraeser, Heus;
               Scholten, Bosz, Witschge; Taument, Kiprich, Blinker.

    Monaco: Etorri; Petit, Valery, Mendy, Sonor; Dib, Puel, Gnako,
            Rui Barros; Weah, Fofana.

    This game was not shown on TV in France because the demands from Feyenoord
    was much higher than what TF1 could offer (the national TV have the rights
    to European games), so even the French had to bear with radio like me...
    Equal terms, alas. Patrick Allemand was once again the commentator on RFI
    and the game kicked off at 20.30 MET. The line-ups were almost the same as
    at Stade Louis-II. In Feyenoord, ex-Toulonais Peter Bosz was back and
    for Monaco, Emmanuel Petit was back after suspension and should give
    solidity to the defence, hmmm, did he really do that?
    Well, during the weekend Monaco won four goals to one in Nantes and 
    Feyenoord lost in the Dutch league, would that be symptomatic for the 
    outcome? Anyway, Monaco knew that they had to score to advance and 
    Feyenoord knew that a scoreless draw would give them advancement. 
    Therefore, the guests should have to attack and the Dutch would prove that 
    they have one of the best defence in Europe. Monaco took control of the 
    play with Feyenoord utilizing counter attacks. In fact, some of these were 
    dangerous, Blinker dribbling in the penalty area and later a Kiprich ball 
    for Blinker who got VERY clean - offside judged the referee. Even Monaco
    created some chances. Georges Weah controlled the ball in the area and
    put it back to Marcel Dib who volleyed it at goal in good position and the
    goalie had to put it centimetres over the bar to a corner. In the 33rd
    minute the surprise arrived when Monaco broke down the home defence and
    went into the lead. Rui Barros headed down for Georges Weah who drove
    home the first goal of the night. This meant, that at the moment,
    Monaco were in the final. Indeed, the home side understood what this
    meant - they had to score two goals to secure their final dreams.
    They moved forward and forced some chances, mainly by ex-Stephanois
    Rob Witschge. He had a thunder saved by Etorri and sent a free kick after
    a foul on Taument just over the bar. Ruud Heus got the first yellow card
    of the game when he took Jerome Gnako down. Georges Weah recovered a ball
    and started a very dangerous counter attack and went clear along with
    Rui Barros, he gave the Portuguese the ball and he shot home. You may ask
    where the solid Feyenoord defence disappeared... At this moment, you might
    think the game was over since the Rotterdam side had to score three goals
    to advance, but no way! Unfortunately, the home side pulled one back on 
    the stroke of the kickoff after the goal, they went forward and a shot 
    saved by a Dutch lead to a rebound from Jean-Luc Etorri which was promptly 
    struck home by Witschge. The home squad continued to push forward cheered
    by the very noisy home fans and Taument had a chance, but was checked
    at the post. Kiprich had a header on goal before he was substituted by
    Damasjin, which should be a good move not that Kiprich was bad, but
    Damasjin was fresh and energetic. Monaco replaced Fofana and Gnako by Passi
    and Thuram, a bit more defensive, that is. In the dying minutes the game
    went really nervous since Scholten found Damasjin and the teams were 
    level. The guests now just needed one goal to go through and Monaco looked
    a bit scared, even if Weah had a good shot saved by De Goey. The last
    chance was a good header by Johnny Metgod saved to corner (?). After
    four minutes of over time the Swedish referee blew his whistle to send
    Monaco to Lisbon on May the 6th. Overall, a quite enjoyable match which
    was not characterized by the defensive play that was expected. Both teams
    are known to have good defence, but today it looked like both clicked.
    Monaco played very well the first 50 minutes and looked to be sure winners,
    after the first goal, but at the end the Dutch were rather close, in my
    opinion, Monaco took it a bit too easy at the end and moved too much 
    backwards and let the home side into the game by giving away the 1-2
    goal directly after the second goal. This means the first European
    Cup final for Monaco and they really deserve that. And at the same time, 
    it gives French football another chance to stop this old argument: "France
    is not a football power since they haven't won a European Cup". Earlier,
    Reims (twice), Saint Etienne and Marseille have failed to win the 
    Champions' Cup and Bastia the UEFA Cup. So, this is the sixth French final
    appearance and that is not bad, I just hope we won't get another loss!!!!
    In the other semifinal, a small surprise occured when Werder Bremen
    won 2-0 at home versus FC Bruges. The Germans are a long way from the
    title race in the Bundesliga and I have trouble to understand how they
    could get that far, but I suppose they are just thinking about the CWC
    this season... Anyhow, Monaco have once again shown that they are one
    of the best teams in Europe nowadays and are probably 60%-40% favourites
    in the Final the 6th May at Estadio de Luz in Lisbon, Portugal.

    In the Champs' Cup the teams that lead before the last round advanced
    to Wembley, i.e. Barcelona and Sampdoria. In the UEFA Cup, Ajax saved
    the Dutch pride by going through to meat Torino who once again stopped
    Real Madrid from reaching a final, the Spaniards have had trouble to 
    reach finals during the last decade, wonder why. The Champions' Cup match
    is played the 20th and the two legged UEFA Cup history is played the
    29th of April and 13th of May.

    Now, I'm taking four days off for Easter (paques) -  so, I won't post
    the French football news again before Tuesday, bear with me for that :-)

Kent


+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
| Kent Hedlundh             | Les Girondins pour le Championnat de D2 1992!   |
| Dept. of Computer Science | France and Sweden for the EC final 1992!        |
| University of Umea        | Le Racing pour la D1 en 1992/93!                |
| S-90187 UMEA     SWEDEN   | E-Mail: dvlkhh@cs.umu.se     IP: 130.239.96.17  |
+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
               "It's always good to talk soccer!" - Marco Petroni