End of reign for Bearzot as French qualify?

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 26

End of reign for Bearzot as French qualify?

NZPA-Reuter Mexico City Enzo Bearzot, whose illustrious reign as Italian coach may be nearing its end after the title holders’ World Cup elimination yesterday, showed dignity and humour in defeat.

“Honestly, France were stronger than us in every department,” he said of France’s 2-0 win, which put it in the last eight. “After 40 years of sport I am used to victories and defeats, and I have learned to accept both,” said the man who has been in charge of Italian teams at three World Cups. “We are ready to applaud the winners because this French team are at the peak of their maturity.”

He denied that his players had lacked heart during the Mexico campaign.

“I absolve all my players and staff of any sin. They tried their best and any mistakes were mine,” he concluded, leaving the interview room to applause. The French team chief, Henri Michel, declined to draw a comparison between himself, at 38, one of the younger breed of coaches, and Bearzot, a 59-year-old representative of the older generation.

“I have too much respect for Monsieur

Bearzot to make a judgment on him,” he said. France’s win was its first over Italy in official competition.

“To beat the world champions, that’s important. It’s a great day for us,” Michel said. “I am entirely satisfied with the quality of my team’s game and I think they could have scored even more goals. “We dreaded Italy and I made an effort to take away any complexes from my players so -that they could impose their game and their own qualities. The great merit goes to the players.” Michel, who will take his team to Guadalajara today, paid tribute to his predecessor, Michel Hidalgo, from whom he inherited the side after the 1984 European championship.

“The great merit of Michel Hidalgo is to have placed his confidence in young trainers like me,” Michel said.

Looking forward to Saturday’s quarter-final against Brazil, Michel

said: “By the quality of their game Brazil are one of the big favourites of this World Cup. We are very pleased to be playing them.” Platini disdained sentiment against the country of his ancestors and his fellow professionals in the Italian league and put France on course for victory in the Olympic Stadium with a fifteenthminute goal. Yannick Stopyra netted the second in the fiftyseventh minute to propel France, semi-finalists in 1982, into the quarterfinals.

Italy fielded five members of the side which beat West Germany in the 1982 World Cup final but this Italian team was a pale blue shadow of the incisive Azzurris who overcame all in Spain. France, served magnificently by a midfield which collectively is without peer in the world, made Italy look an ordinary team short of constructive ideas and unable to cope with the creative enterprise of its opponent.