The sixth group of the 1994 FIFA World Cup European Qualifier consisted of France, Bulgaria, Sweden, Austria, Finland and Israel. Although we all knew the final result, at that time, the biggest qualifying favorite in people's eyes was undoubtedly France.
After Platini retired, French football ushered in a period of pain, missing the 1988 European Championship and the 1990 World Cup, and they also performed poorly at the 1992 European Championship, and Platini was dismissed. But as France began to host the 1998 World Cup, French football seemed to have ushered in another period of upsurge. In the 1993 Champions League final, Marseille, with stars such as Deschamps, Desailly and Butters, won the only Champions League title for French teams.
Coupled with stars such as Papan, Cantona and Ginola, the star-studded France team is clearly the most powerful team in this group. But they suffered a head-to-head start in their first group stage, losing 2-0 away to Bulgaria. Fortunately, the Frenchman adjusted his form and mood in time, and achieved a record of six wins and one draw in the next seven matches, including one win and one draw against Sweden. With two games left, France finished first in the group with 13 points, three points ahead of third-place Bulgaria.
Despite the first-round victory over France and the presence of superstar Stoichkov, Bulgaria's road to qualifying was bumpy. They first lost away to Sweden and Austria, and were forced to draw 2-2 at home by the fish-belly team Israel. He then shook hands with Sweden at home, which put their situation in jeopardy.
In front of the Bulgarian team, in addition to france and Sweden, they are second in the group with 12 points after winning five, drawing two and losing.
Needless to say, france are in the best situation at this time, and in the last two games they only need to score one more point to enter the World Cup. In these two matches, France not only played at home, but also included the fish belly team Israel. Who knows that in this good situation, the French team actually overturned the ship in the gutter, losing to Israel 2:3, knowing that Israel won such a goal in the entire qualifiers.
They lost, Sweden won Finland 3:2, Bulgaria 4:1 Austria, although Sweden overtook, but France still put the initiative in their own hands, as long as they do not lose to relegation Leah in the next round of home, they can still qualify. But if Bulgaria wants to qualify, it must beat France away, which is not a small difficulty.
The tournament began on 17 November 1993, with only one qualifying spot left in the group due to Sweden's 1–1 draw with Austria. France started well, in the 30th minute of the game, Deschamps passed the ball into the box on the right, Papan's header sailed to the back post, Andonne's powerful right-footed shot scored, giving France a 1-0 lead.
But just six minutes later, Bulgaria equalised. Taking advantage of an attack from a left corner, Barakov passed the ball into the box and Kostadinov's header broke through the goal guarded by Rama and the Bulgarian team equalized.
A draw was enough for the French, but the Bulgarians had to go all out to win, but their attack never came to fruition. Seeing that there was less than a minute left before the end of the game, an incredible scene appeared. At this time, controlling the ball at the foot and consuming the last time is the safest thing for the French team, but Ginola did the opposite, he chose to pass the ball, but his foot pass was very unreliable, the ball came to the feet of the Bulgarians, and the Bulgarian team immediately launched the last attack. Penev sent a long pass from midfield, and Kostadinov scored the ball into the box and fired a powerful shot at the French team. Bulgaria unexpectedly snatched the World Cup ticket from France at the last minute.
The strong French team missed the World Cup again after the 1990 World Cup. French football began another painful change, Hollier was dismissed, Jacquet became the new French manager, and Ginola, who made a fatal mistake, completely failed to qualify for the national team and became the sinner of the French team.