UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
Group 1

Event	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
France Azerbaijan 10 0
Date	6 September 1995 (1995-09-06)
Venue	Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps, Auxerre, France
Referee	Alfred Micallef (Malta)
Attendance	13,479

The Auxerre tragedy, as it is known in the Azerbaijani media,^[1] was a game belonging to the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying that took place on 6 September 1995.

The game went down in history as the biggest defeat of the Azerbaijan national team, as well the biggest victory of the France national team until their 14–0 victory over Gibraltar in 2023.

Background

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Romania	8	5	3	0	15	6	+9	18
Poland	8	3	3	2	13	8	+5	12
France	7	2	5	0	7	1	+6	11
Slovakia	8	3	2	3	10	15	−5	11
Israel	8	2	3	3	11	11	0	9
Azerbaijan	7	0	0	7	2	17	−15	0

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 suffered its biggest defeat (0–5) in a friendly match against Malta on 19 April 1994.^[3]

Context

The French team was in difficulty following a series of poor results, having been negatively affected by failure to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the most recent being a 1–1 draw conceded at the Parc des Princes against Poland a few weeks earlier. As Azerbaijan was one of the weakest European selections a Les Blues victory was not in doubt. Instead, the challenge for the Blues was to reassure themselves by regaining their effectiveness on target.

Match

Details

6 September 1995 (1995-09-06)

20:45

France	10–0	Azerbaijan
Desailly 13' Djorkaeff 18', 78' Guérin 35' Pedros 49' Leboeuf 53', 74' Dugarry 66' Zidane 72' Cocard 90'	Report

Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps, Auxerre, France

Attendance: 13,479

Referee: Alfred Micallef (Malta)

France

Azerbaijan

GK 1 Bernard Lama RB 2 Jocelyn Angloma  57' LB 3 Bixente Lizarazu CB 4 Marcel Desailly CB 5 Frank Leboeuf AM 6 Youri Djorkaeff DM 7 Didier Deschamps DM 8 Vincent Guérin CF 9 Christophe Dugarry  69' AM 10 Zinedine Zidane AM 11 Reynald Pedros  65' Substitutes: DF 12 Éric Di Meco DF 13 Lilian Thuram  57' FW 14 David Ginola  65' MF 15 Christophe Cocard  69' GK 16 Bruno Martini Manager: Aimé Jacquet

GK 1 Elkhan Hasanov  36' DF 2 Arif Asadov DF 3 İqor Getman  49' DF 4 Tarlan Ahmadov DF 5 Emin Ağayev MF 6 Rasim Abushev FW 7 Yunis Huseynov MF 8 Shahin Diniyev MF 9 Vladislav Kadyrov  74' MF 10 Mahmud Qurbanov  46' MF 11 Vyacheslav Lychkin Substitutes: FW 13 Fazil Parvarov FW 14 Mushfig Huseynov  74' FW 15 Samir Alakbarov  46' GK 16 Nizami Sadiqov  36' MF 17 Bakhtiyar Musayev Manager: Aghasalim Mirjavadov

Post-match

After the game, France took second place with 14 points, ahead of Poland; the Azerbaijani team remained in the last place with 8 losses and 0 points. Head coach Aghasalim Mirjavadov resigned immediately after the defeat, citing the inability of the players, the low level of training and the fact that the opponent was very strong as the reasons for the defeat.^[4]

France, meanwhile, would go on finishing second place and qualified for the UEFA Euro 1996, in which France 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 form the main squad in France's eventual 1998 FIFA World Cup triumph.^[5]

In 2016, pastemagazine.com included the Auxerre tragedy in its list of Top 10 Biggest National Defeats.^[6]

Final table

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Romania	8	5	3	0	15	6	+9	18
France	8	3	5	0	17	1	+16	14
Poland	8	3	3	2	13	8	+5	12
Slovakia	8	3	2	3	10	15	−5	11
Israel	8	2	3	3	11	11	0	9
Azerbaijan	8	0	0	8	2	27	−25	0