Laslandes sent off in one minute against Beckham: Aimé Jacquet in shock

Lilian Laslandes, who is celebrating his 55th birthday, has a bitter memory of a Ligue des Champions evening in March 2000: sent off in the space of one minute during Bordeaux-Manchester United, he watched his teammates lose 1-2 at Lescure without being able to do anything.

Élie Baup’s Girondins had actually started the match well. Michel Pavon opened the scoring in the 9th minute with a long-range strike that surprised goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw. But Laslandes was about to accelerate the turnaround. In the 22nd minute, he fails to hear the whistle signaling an offside and receives a first yellow card for protesting the assistant referee’s decision. Immediately after, in the 23rd minute, he tackles David Beckham on the right side — Beckham throws himself into his feet — and receives a second yellow card meaning expulsion.

“I first get a yellow on a harmless action, at 1-0. I go deep, I don’t hear the whistle signaling offside and I score. The referee won’t hear it. In the continuation, Manchester plays quickly, I see Beckham ready to go, I make a sliding tackle and he deliberately throws himself into my feet. I get a second yellow,” recalls the former striker.

Aimé Jacquet, present as a consultant and former coach of the 1998 World Cup-winning France team — he had managed Laslandes in the French national team — did not hide his astonishment: “It’s dramatic… Why?” His colleague Thierry Gilardi also lost his temper: “He doesn’t touch him! Oh Beckham the actor! Magician of the cross perhaps, but also a magician for dives.” Gilardi would however qualify his remarks, as Laslandes had indeed tackled the English international’s right foot.

Deprived of their striker, Bordeaux conceded the equalizer from Roy Keane in the 33rd minute, before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who came on as a substitute, slipped between Kodjo Afanou and François Grenet to give victory to the Red Devils in the 84th minute (1-2).

It was not Laslandes’ first European setback. In the AJ Auxerre shirt, in the second leg of the quarter-final of the Ligue des Champions 1996-1997 against Borussia Dortmund, an acrobatic overhead kick had been denied by the Spanish referee when he thought he had equalized, triggering the fury of Guy Roux.