The 1999 UEFA Cup Final was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

match played on 12 May 1999 at the

Luzhniki Stadium Luzhniki Stadium ( rus, стадион «Лужники», p=stədʲɪˈon lʊʐnʲɪˈkʲi, ''Stadion Luzhniki'') is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. The full name of the stadium is Grand Sports Arena of the ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

to determine the winners of the 1998–99 UEFA Cup. The match was contested by

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

of Italy and

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

of France. Parma won the match 3–0 to claim their second

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

and fourth European trophy, having previously won the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

and the

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

on one occasion each. There were 61,000 spectators at the match, making it the highest-attended single-legged UEFA Cup/Europa League final.

Background

This was Parma's second UEFA Cup final, having defeated

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. Marseille had won the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

in 1993. The

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

played host to the match, having never previously hosted a major European final.

Route to the final

Match

Team selection

While Parma's selection for the match was more straightforward, underdogs Marseille had four players suspended for the final after the team's semi-final victory over

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, which ended in a fight in the players' tunnel at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara.

Fabrizio Ravanelli Fabrizio Ravanelli (; born 11 December 1968) is an Italian football manager and former international player. A former striker, Ravanelli started and ended his playing career at hometown club Perugia Calcio, and also played for Middlesbrough ...

and William Gallas both received yellow cards which barred their participation in the final. Christophe Dugarry and Hamada Jambay would serve the first match of their respective and five- and four-match suspensions on the sidelines for the final for their involvement in the brawl.

Summary

Hugh Dallas Hugh Dallas MBE (born 26 October 1957) is a Scottish former football referee. He officiated at two FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1998 and 2002; he was appointed fourth official for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final. Dallas also officiated at the 19 ...

, the Scottish referee who had also officiated in the Franco-Italian

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

quarter-final, conducted the

coin toss A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

, which was won by Marseille captain

Laurent Blanc Laurent Robert Blanc (born 19 November 1965) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, and is currently the manager of Ligue 1 club Lyon. He has the nickname ''Le Président'', which was given to hi ...

and the Frenchman elected to shoot towards his team's own fans in the second half.

Roberto Sensini Roberto Néstor Sensini (born 12 October 1966) is an Argentine football manager and former player, who played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder. As a player with the Argentina national team, he won both the 1991 and 1993 Copa América, a ...

, Parma's captain, chose to kick the match off. The first 25 minutes saw a cautious Marseille side play much of their football in their own half, only to knock it long to their isolated frontmen Robert Pires and

Florian Maurice Florian Maurice (born 20 January 1974) is a French football executive and former professional footballer who played as a striker. He most notably won the 1998 Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue with French team Paris Saint-Germain. He playe ...

. Following such an occasion, Sensini hit a long ball forward towards Juan Sebastián Verón, whose headed flick-on looked not to be dangerous until a lazy headed backpass from the experienced Laurent Blanc gifted Hernán Crespo one-on-one with the keeper; the Argentine coolly lobbed

Stéphane Porato Stéphane Patrick Porato (born 19 September 1973) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career In his country Porato represented Sporting Toulon, AS Monaco FC, Olympique de Marseille (where he played in the 199 ...

with his first touch to give Parma the lead after 26 minutes. Ten minutes later, as the Italians continued to dominate the match, a Parma attack twice looked to have been ended by Marseille's defence, but the ball found

Lilian Thuram Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien (; born 1 January 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. He began playing football professionally in his homeland with Monaco and played in the top flight in France, Italy and Spai ...

in an advanced right-back position on both occasions. On the second occasion, Thuram was able to slide in to find Diego Fuser five yards from the byline and just onside. He whipped in a deep cross, and

Paolo Vanoli Paolo Vanoli (; born 12 August 1972) is an Italian professional football coach and a former player who played as a left back or left midfielder. He is the manager of Italian club Venezia. Club career Vanoli, a journeyman, played for many clubs ...

directed his header past Marseille's goalkeeper into the net to double Parma's advantage. Five minutes before the hour mark, Thuram surged forward down the right before giving the ball to Verón outside him. Verón chipped the ball into the penalty area with a ball looking to be destined for Crespo's boot, a fine dummy duped the Marseille's defence and gave

Enrico Chiesa Enrico Chiesa (; born 29 December 1970) is an Italian football coach and former striker. A prolific goalscorer, Chiesa played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, and performed regularly in Serie A for over a decade, winning titles ...

the opportunity to volley home emphatically from 12 yards to make it 3–0 and seal a Parma victory.

Details

References

External links

1998–99 season
at UEFA.com {{Olympique de Marseille matches 2 Uefa Cup Final 1999 Uefa Cup Final 1999 Uefa Cup Final 1999

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Uefa Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

1999 in Moscow May 1999 sports events in Europe Sports competitions in Moscow