Today I'm going back 31 years to 4th July 1990 and England's Italia 90 World Cup Semi-Final against West Germany at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin. The tournament programme pictured will set you back around £50 from a dealer today although it cost me nothing like that much at the time.
After last night's England heroics in Rome where the Three Lions made the Semi-Finals of a major tournament, It's an ambition of mine to see England win a major tournament. We're as close now as we have ever been since 1966. There have been three subsequent Semi-Finals where England have failed to advance (Italia 90, Euro96 and Russia 2018), twice going out on penalties. This time, with a home game against the Danes England surely have their best chance of appearing in a Final. Certainly if England don't make it this time I fear that I will never see them win a trophy. Oh and I already have a ticket for the Final! No pressure then.
Italia 90 was my second World Cup tournament attended. I had bought tickets for England's games from the knockout phase onwards and had already seen England beat the Belgians in Bologna and the Cameroon in Naples. Now, if we could beat old foes West Germany then we would reach another World Cup Final. I already had the ticket for the Final in my pocket too! It was so close you could almost touch it!
Like England, West Germany were amongst the top seeds for the tournament when the draw was made and they came through a relatively easy group comfortably beating Yugoslavia and the UAE before drawing their last Group game against Colombia when they had already qualified for the knockout rounds. A much stiffer test awaited in the Round of 16 where the Germans met the Netherlands in a game memorable for all the wrong reasons as Rudi Voller and Frank Rijkaard were sent off with Rijkaard spitting on Voller as they left the field. I can picture the phlegm hanging in Voller's curly perm even now! Yeuch! In the Quarter-finals the Germans overcame Czechoslovakia to take their place in the Semi-Final.
A very average looking Argentina had beaten hosts Italy the previous evening and we felt that whoever won the second Semi-final would go on to lift the trophy. It was always going to be a tight game and England and West Germany were evenly matched. The Germans took the lead on the hour mark following a cruel deflection off Paul Parker from Andrea Brehme's shot that looped over the England goal keeper Peter Shilton and into the net. The goals and penalties from this game are regularly repeated on TV but can you remember that Chris Waddle forced the German keeper Illgner to turn the ball onto his crossbar from fully forty yards before the Germans got their goal? If that had gone in I think that it might just have become England's most famous goal of all time.
The unlucky Parker was, fittingly, the player providing the assist for Gary Lineker to equalise for England with just ten minutes remaining. A few minutes later came the moment that I see as the major turning point for football in this country. You have to remember that football was blighted by hooliganism throughout the 1970's and 80's and that the game was almost dying on it's feet with attendances being hugely impacted. Attendees at football matches were hooligans or deviants. It simply wasn't a place for families or women. Gazza lunged for the ball and connected instead with the ankle of a German defender. It earned him a yellow card which would have made him ineligible for the Final if England were to get there. Gazza's tears fell and the attitude of the nation towards football changed in that moment. Gary Lineker's "Have a word with him" message to England Manager Bobby Robson was clear for all to see.
It went to Extra Time during which Waddle hit the frame of the German goal once again but England's luck seemed to out. Then again Buchwald also hit the post for the Germans. This game was surely heading for penalties and we knew it long before it became a reality. I can distinctly remember my feelings as the final whistle blew. England had given everything and made me (and the nation) proud. People would talk about England's football rather than their troublemakers for a change. Penalties would be something of a lottery however and the winners would most likely win the World Cup. England lost the shootout with Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle famously missing their spot kicks. England had missed out on their Final.
CRB Match No. 667
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