What a piece of work

The BBC has been running a Sunday night tv series called World Cup Stories, focusing one one country each show and last night it was France.

They followed France’s World Cup history from the fifties to 1998, highlighting how so many of the great French players through the years have come from an immigrant background.

Among the match highlights was another showing of the Schumacher/Battiston clash from the ‘82 semifinal with West Germany. They showed how German keeper Harald Schumacher had taken a very aggressive mode with the French players all through the game and finally with the game tied 1-1 in the 65th minute Michel Platini played a pass that put Patrick Battiston clean through on goal.

Schumacher raced out of goal but Battiston got to the ball while Schumacher was still about 8-10 yards away. Battiston’s shot went wide but Schumacher carried on running and jumped up sideways into Battiston’s head, breaking his jaw and knocking him out cold. He was stretchered off, taken to hospital and lost some teeth.

Watching it again it’s amazing that Schumacher didn’t even get a yellow card, and the referee awarded the Germans a goalkick which Schumacher waited impatiently to take while Battiston was being lifted onto the stretcher.

The double whammy for France with Schumacher not getting a red card was that he saved Bossis’s kick in the penalty shootout that put West Germany in the final. I think Schumacher must be one of the all-time villains of French football.