Africa Vs Europe Football Match In 1997 (Throwback Video).

Africa 2-1 Europe (January 2nd, 1997).

(Abedi Pele and Mustapha Hadji scored for Africa and Vincent Guerin scored for Europe).

The match, which was UEFA and CAF's contribution to the European Year Against Racism, was held at Benfica's Stadium of Light in honour of Eusebio, the first African to be named European player of the year (He was from Mozambique, but he played for Portugal). Eusebio was the guest of honour and he took the ceremonial kickoff.

Two African legends that I loved to hate played important roles in this game. Algerian, Rabah Madjer scored a fantastic backheel goal to win the 1987 European Champions Cup for Porto. I hated him because of what happened at the 1990 Nations Cup.

Nigeria went to the Algeria 1990 Nations Cup with a team of Africa based players. Our Europe based professionals couldn't make it because their clubs refused to release them. The first match of the tournament was between Nigeria and Algeria. Rabah Madjer scored two goals for Algeria and Emmanuel Okocha (Jay Jay's elder brother) scored for Nigeria as Algeria beat us 5-1. Algeria also beat us in the final 1-0. Rabah Madjer was the coach of this African side.

Abedi "Pele" Ayew is a Ghanaian legend. A fantastic Nigerian side played against Ghana in the semi-final of Senegal '92. Abedi Pele admitted on the BBC (years later) that they knew that Nigeria was better than them (he then went on to list all the stars in the Super Eagles at that time), so they decided to defend, frustrate the Nigerians and hit them with counter attacks. It worked. Abedi Pele and Prince Opoku Polley scored for Ghana and Mutiu Adepoju as Ghana beat Nigeria 2-1.

The shock and heartbreak from that match was unbelievable. I left home before the final whistle to take a walk and clear my head and I witnessed one of the bloodiest fights I've ever seen. A guy beat up and stabbed a much bigger guy because of an argument over the match. He almost killed him.(Abedi Pele was the player of the tournament, while Yekini was the highest goal scorer. Abedi also won the 1993 European Champions League with Olympique Marseille). Watch out for Abedi's wonder goal in the video below

German super wingback Mathias Sammer captained Europe, while Abedi Pele captained Africa.


Abedi Pele, Mawade Wade and Rabah Madjer hold the Meridian Cup trophy.

There were lots of Nigerians and South Africans in this team (Nigeria won Tunisia '94 and Atlanta '96, while South Africa won SA '96) and lots of Germans, AC Milan and Ajax players in the European team (Germany won Euro '96, Ajax won the '95 champions league and came second in '96, while AC Milan was still the biggest club in the world at that time). There were no English players due to the Premier League Christmas programme.

Africa

GK 20 Andre Arendse (South Africa)

DF 2 Frank Amankwah (Ghana)
DF 16 Taribo West (Nigeria)
DF 5 Mark Fish (South Africa)

MF 7 Sunday Oliseh (Nigeria)
MF 12 Radwan Yasser (Egypt)
MF 14 Moussa Saïb (Algeria)
MF 10 Abedi Pele (c) (Ghana)

FW 3 Tijani Babangida (Nigeria)
FW 8 Ahmed Ouattara (Ivory Coast)
FW 9 Paulão (Angola)

substitutes

GK 1 Abiodun Baruwa (Nigeria)
MF 6 Mustapha Hadji (Morocco)
FW 4 Chiquinho Conde (Mozambique)
FW 11 Quinzinho (Angola)
FW 15 Souleyman Sané (Senegal)

Coaches:
Rabah Madjer (Algeria)
Mawade Wade (Senegal)



Europe

GK 20 Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands)

2 Zvonimir Boban (Croatia)
4 Frank de Boer (Netherlands)
5 Ronald de Boer (Netherlands)
7 Vincent Guérin (France)
9 João Pinto (Portugal)

10 Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany)
11 Jürgen Kohler (Germany)
14 Paulinho Santos (Portugal)

15 Rui Costa (Portugal)

16 Matthias Sammer (c) (Germany)

Substitutes

GK 1 Stanislav Cherchesov (Russia)
DF 6 Stéphane Henchoz (Switzerland)
MF 12 Andreas Möller (Germany)
MF 13 Pavel Nedvěd (Czech Republic)
FW 3 Pierluigi Casiraghi (Italy)
FW 6 Domingos Paciência (Portugal)

Coaches :
Berti Vogts (Germany)
Rinus Michels (Netherlands)


Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuyJ52OGCu8


Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1o1tbuHGdg

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