France v Azerbaijan (UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying)
Football match
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
France v Azerbaijan, also known as the "Auxerre tragedy" (Azerbaijani: Oser faciəsi) in Azerbaijani media,[1] was a football match belonging to the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying that took place on 6 September 1995.
.jpg)
| |||||||
| Event | UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 6 September 1995 | ||||||
| Venue | Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps, Auxerre, France | ||||||
| Referee | Alfred Micallef (Malta) | ||||||
| Attendance | 13,479 | ||||||
France won the game 10–0, and it went down as the largest victory in the history of the France national team until it was surpassed by a 14–0 win over Gibraltar in 2023. The match also became the biggest defeat of the Azerbaijan national team, a record that still stands today.
Background
This would be the 8th match for both teams in the first group of the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying. While Azerbaijan already lost its chance to participate in the tournament, France was still fighting for a ticket. Prior to the game, France's biggest victory was 8–0, twice over Luxembourg (20 April 1913 and 17 December 1953) and against Iceland (2 June 1957).[2] Azerbaijan had only been playing international football since 1992; prior to that, the country had been part of the Soviet Union. They had suffered its biggest defeat (0–5) in a friendly match against Malta on 19 April 1994.[3]
Azerbaijan did not start a true striker for the match, instead utilising captain Shahin Diniyev in a rudimentary attacking role, while the French XI was almost at their full strength.
Match
Details
          France
|
 Azerbaijan
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Post-match
After the game, France took second place with 14 points, ahead of Poland, while Azerbaijan remained in last with 8 losses. Head coach Aghasalim Mirjavadov resigned immediately after the defeat, citing the inability of the players, the low level of training and the opponents' strength as the reasons for the defeat.[4]
Les Bleus would go on to finish second in their group and qualify for UEFA Euro 1996, where they reached the semi-finals. Nearly the same crop of players, including some notable names like Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djorkaeff and Bixente Lizarazu, would go on to win the 1998 FIFA World Cup on home soil.[5]
In 2016, pastemagazine.com included the match in its list of Top 10 Biggest National Defeats.[6]