CLASSIC WORLD CUP ENCOUNTERS

SPAIN 1982, Semi-Final: France v West Germany



This game had everything. Considering what was at stake on that extraordinary summer evening in Sevilla, southern Spain, this has to be remembered as one of the most dramatic football matches ever played. It's the sort of game that will never be forgotten by those who watched it. The sort of game that will haunt the players who played on the losing side all the way to their graves. A game which summed up so perfectly how football mirrors life through the intertwining of the cruel, the absurd, and the triumphant. A game that one almost feels it would be a insult to try and describe.

Let me leave it with the words of Michel Platini, who played on the losing side:

"That was my most beautiful game. What happened in those two hours encapsulated all the sentiments of life itself. No film or play could ever recapture so many contradictions and emotions. It was complete. So strong. It was fabulous."