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Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 4:25 pm
by charlie
2020 has struck again.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... es-aged-73
Another long standing member of the football community and respected winning coach for France and Liverpool, has passed away after undergoing heart surgery.
May his soul Rest in Peace.
Re: Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 5:07 pm
by maceo4
Damn RIP, this year sef
Re: Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 7:35 pm
by txj
YNWA coach....
Re: Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:07 pm
by kajifu
RIP
Re: Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:46 pm
by oloye
RIP this year has been one heck of a year.
Re: Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:05 pm
by Scipio Africanus
Great coach. Suffered the worst heartbreak imaginable as a coach. He was France coach during qualifying for the USA 94 WC. France only needed 1 point from 2 remaining home games against Israel and Bulgaria to qualify.
They lost the first of the two remaining matches to Israel on a last minute goal. No problem, they said. Everyone was confident they would get at least a point against Bulgaria in the last game to secure the ticket.
So here we are in the last qualifying game, they were playing Bulgaria at home and all they needed was a draw to qualify. They were tied 1-1 into injury time and already celebrating their upcoming travel to the USA to play in the WC when Ginola lost the ball, Bulgaria countered, Penev fed Kostadinov and he blasted the ball into the net from an acute angle (he would never be able to score that goal again in 100 tries) qualified Bulgaria and knocked out France. Drama!! The star-studded France team of Cantona, Ginola, Papin dem jus dey dia dey look like Lukuman. They would all be pushed to the sidelines of the France international setup shortly after that. Houllier would later resign and make way for Jacquet to become coach, rebuild the team and lift the WC 5 years later.
To add insult to injury, the goalscorer (Kostadinov) and the assist giver (Penev) were in France illegally for that match. They weren't able to obtain the required visas in time and had to be smuggled across the Franco-German border by a dude named Georgiev.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idINInd ... 1620111117
SOFIA (Reuters) - An illegal border crossing helped secure Bulgaria’s famous 2-1 win over France in 1993 which set up their impressive run to the World Cup semi-finals in the United States the following year.
The Balkan country clinched victory in Paris in the last minute when Emil Kostadinov scored from Luboslav Penev’s pass but midfielder Zlatko Yankov revealed that the duo had entered France without the necessary visas.
“This story sounds like a legend now but it’s true,” Yankov, capped by Bulgaria 80 times between 1990 and 1999, told local media on Thursday.
“They (Kostadinov and Penev) had visa problems and they needed help from our keeper Borislav Mihaylov and former Bulgaria midfielder Georgi Georgiev, who were playing for the French club Mulhouse at that time, to join us in Paris.”
“Kostadinov and Penev sneaked across the border between Germany and France in a car driven by Georgiev as the two Mulhouse players deliberately chose a border-post with low security.”
France coach Gerard Houllier blamed winger David Ginola for misplacing a cross which allowed Bulgaria to launch the decisive counter attack and Yankov agreed with the former Liverpool manager.
“We’re just waiting for the referee to blow the final whistle at that moment,” said Yankov, who now works as Chernomorets Burgas’s sporting director.
“We and even our coaching staff on the bench were convinced that it’s over and nothing more can be done.
“Ginola could’ve done better -- to waste some time and it should’ve been the end of the match. But he probably thought they could win the game,” he added.
Only a month before the match at the Parc des Princes, France looked sure of a place in the finals with two home games to play against Israel and Bulgaria but they lost both to goals scored in the dying minutes.
“The French look sick after the game, nobody could believe what happened,” Yankov said. “I remember the face of Jean-Pierre Papin. He was so pale, he looked like he was very ill.”
Re: Gerrard Houllier Dead
Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 9:59 pm
by green4life
charlie wrote:2020 has struck again.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... es-aged-73
Another long standing member of the football community and respected winning coach for France and Liverpool, has passed away after undergoing heart surgery.
May his soul Rest in Peace.
Na wa. Rough news. May his soul rest in perfect peace. My condolence goes out to the Liverpool fans on CE.