Today I'm going back 23 years to 28th June 1998 and the Round of 16 (or "Huitieme de Finale" as stated on the ticket, literally Eighth Final) game between Denmark and Nigeria at the Stade de France.
Despite living and working in France at the time, I hadn't made enough of an effort to get tickets and the tournament came around with me still without one. I was determined to get to at least one World Cup game and the Friday night match between Romania and Tunisia at the Stade de France looked like a likely candidate for spare tickets. I worked only four stops on the Metro from Saint-Denis and went along after work. I was delighted to secure a 130 Franc ticket (just £17) outside. Romania versus Tunisia was the game made famous by the Romanian squad turning up all having bleached their hair identically making easy identification of individual players virtually impossible without the assistance of shirt numbers. A classic "Commentator's Nightmare". Whilst at the game I learned that tickets would be going on sale the following day at Saint-Denis City Hall for Sunday's Denmark-Nigeria knockout game. What a bonus! We queued up with our passports and 500 Francs (about £65) per ticket and my seven year old lad Kris and I had tickets to the Round of 16!
Once again and as is the norm case for World Cups, there were no programmes issued for the individual matches. One programme was issued for the entire Tournament and I was also able to pick up one or two other interesting tournament magazines and souvenirs with the help of one of the secretaries at work whose husband seemed to have access to VIP brochures. The programme today will set you back around £10 from a dealer compared to the cover price of 50 Francs in the pre-Euro era.
Nigeria had come through the Group Stage winning Group D which contained Paraguay, Spain and Bulgaria whist Denmark had come second in a Group containing the hosts and eventual tournament winners France as well as South Africa and Saudi Arabia, Bora Multinovic's Nigerian team was something of a "Golden Generation" containing the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Kanu, Finidi George and Taribo West. The Danes had Peter Schmeichel, Alan Nielsen and the Laudrup brothers, Brian and Michael.
The Stade de France had a capacity of 80,000 and it was approaching that for this match with an attendance of 77,000. Denmark took the lead after only three minutes with a goal from Moller and worse was to follow for Nigeria as the Danes grabbed their second on 12 minutes when Brian Laudrup knocked in the rebound following a good save by the Nigerian keeper.
Ebbe Sand, making his debut for the Danes put the game beyond doubt with a third goal after 58 minutes and the rampant Danes added a fourth for good measure in the 76th minutes via Thomas Helveg. The Nigerians did get a consolation goal just a minute later through Babangida but they were well beaten. Denmark were through to the Quarter-Finals where they would come up against Brazil and give them a stern test before going down 3-2 in Nantes.
CRB Match No. 1154
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