Today I'm going back 31 years to 1991 and the (so called) Friendly International between England and Germany at the old Wembley Stadium, played in front of an official attendance of 59,493. The game was England's 677th ever International match and was effectively a replay of the previous summer's World Cup Semi-Final in Turin that I had also attended (you can find it in my blog by searching on "Germany"). However the eagle-eyed amongst you will perhaps have spotted that the featured game was against the new unified Germany as opposed to West Germany who had been in opposition in Turin so it wasn't quite the replay after all!.
The game was manager Graham Taylor's 13th in charge. Taylor was undefeated as England manager going into this game. Of Taylor's starting selection, Gary Lineker was the most capped England player with 69 caps having scored 45 goals. Making his fifth and final appearance for England that night was John Salako of Crystal Palace. England also had two debutantes coming off the substitutes bench with the North London pairing of Arsenal's Paul Merson and Tottenham's Paul Stewart both joining the match in the 67th minute. John Salako, born in Nigeria, played in the Premier League for Crystal Palace, Coventry City, Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace and also had spells in the Football League with Swansea City, Fulham, Reading and Brentford. In addition to his five England caps, Salako made 510 Premier / Football League appearances scoring 49 goals.
Berti Vogts Germany, who had won the previous year's World Cup Final in Italy against Argentina played most of their World Cup winning line-up with only Klaus Augenthaler, Thomas Berthold, Pierre Littbarski and Rudi Voller missing. Jurgen Klinsmann, who had started the Final, came off the substitutes bench in this game. England had just four survivors from that Semi-Final in Turin: Paul Parker, Trevor Steven, David Platt and Gary Lineker.
A bright first half saw both sides troubling the woodwork but England's poor finishing was perhaps the more significant, especially so when Germany took the lead just before half time through a header by the constant danger Karl-Heinz Reidle following a pinpoint cross from his Lazio teammate Thomas Doll. Despite a bright performance by England, there was to be no further scoring in the match as Germany West Germany won for the third time at Wembley (1972, 1982 and now 1991).
Following the featured game, England played their two remaining Euro 1992 Qualification matches against Turkey and Poland and finished unbeaten as Group winners. Germany also won their Group although they did lose a Qualification match in Cardiff against Wales, a game that I also attended (it's also covered in my blog). The following Summer, both England and Germany therefore went to Sweden to compete in the European Championship Finals. For England, the tournament was something of a disaster as they finished bottom of their Group following two draws and a defeat to the hosts. Germany meanwhile made it through their Group in second place behind Holland before beating Sweden in the Semi-Finals. The Final, in Gothenburg proved to be a night for underdog as the Germans surprisingly lost to 2-0 Denmark and even John Jensen scored!
CRB Match No. 732
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