France v Azerbaijan (UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying)

France v Azerbaijan, also known as the "Auxerre tragedy" in Azerbaijani media, was a football match belonging to the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying that took place on 6 September 1995.

France won the game 10–0, and it went down as the largest victory in the history of the France national team until it was surpassed by a 14–0 win over Gibraltar in 2023. The match also became the biggest defeat of the Azerbaijan national team, a record that still stands today.

Background
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). Azerbaijan had suffered its biggest defeat (0–5) in a friendly match against Malta on 19 April 1994.

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

Azerbaijan did not start a true striker for the match, instead utilising captain Shahin Diniyev in a makeshift attacking role, while the French XI was almost at their full strength.

Post-match
After the game, France took second place with 14 points, ahead of Poland, while the Azerbaijanis remained in last with 8 losses. Head coach Aghasalim Mirjavadov resigned immediately after the defeat, citing the inability of the players, the low level of training and the opponents' strength as the reasons for the defeat.

France, meanwhile, would go on to finish in second and qualify UEFA Euro 1996, where they 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 Les Bleus' eventual 1998 FIFA World Cup triumph.

In 2016, pastemagazine.com included the match in its list of Top 10 Biggest National Defeats.