On the 11th June 1990, Ireland played England in the first match of Group F of the 1990 World Cup. Italia 90 was 2 years after the Euro 88 heroics but for many, reaching the World Cup finals gave even more joy.
Gary Lineker opened the scoring for top seeded England but Everton's Kevin Sheedy equalised in the 73rd minute to send the huge travlleing support into ecstasy.
Qualification
Despite qualifying for the 1988 European Championships, Ireland were still seeded 4th for the World Cup qualifiers. We were drawn in group 6 with top seeds Spain, Hungary, Northern Ireland and 5th seeds Malta. After 3 games in qualification nobody gave Ireland any hope to make it out of the group as scoreless draws away to Northern Ireland and HUngary sandwiched a 2-0 defeat in Seville. Remarkably Ireland's next 4 games were at home though and starting with a 1-0 win over Spain, Ireland won all 4 games without conceding a goal. Going into the final game Ireland had 10 points while Hungary had 8. 2 goals for John Aldridge in Malta was enough to see Ireland finish the group in 2nd place and qualify for the World Cup for the first time.
Build Up
Ireland was gripped by World Cup fever. Every imaginable spin off merchandise was available in pretty much every available outlet. People painted streets as the country rallied around Jack Charlton's band of merry men. The draw was sligtly unkind to Ireland as they had England as top seeds as well as European Champions Holland in a group rounded out by Egypt. There was some controversy with the squad selection as Gary Waddock, a true servant of the Irish game, was replaced in the final squad by the uncapped English born Alan mcLoughlin from Swindon Town. Ireland's last friendly was another win in Malta.
The England game
England were made top seeds, not because of footballing ability, but because of a desire by FIFA and the Italina authorities to keep their fans contained on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The game was played in Cagliari's Stadio Sant'Elia on Monday 11th June with a 9pm local time kick off.
The Irish team lined out in the traditional 4-4-2 to face Bobby Robson's English team; Bonner; Morris, Staunton, Moran McCarthy (c); McGrath, Townsend, Houghton, Sheedy; Aldridge, Cascarino.
Disaster struck after 8 minutes when Gary Lineker's stumble guided the ball past Packie Bonner to give England the lead. George Hamilton's iconic "Danger here" was born as millions watched back home on RTE. In familar Jack Charlton style, ireland bombarded the English goal mouth and got reward with Kevin Sheedy's crisp drive equalised and instantly made him a national hero.
The Aftermath
ireland drew with Egypt and Holland to qualify for the last 16 where they famously beat Romania on penalties. A tough quarter final loss to Italy didn't stop hundreds of thousands lining the streets of Dublin for the team home coming. Finally, Ireland had arrived on the football world
