|
European
Championship 1992 Preliminary Competition
1990-1991
|
Group 7 Matches
|
|
Date |
Match Score |
H.T. |
Venue |
Att. |
|
17-Oct-1990 |
Republic
of Ireland 5 Turkey 0 |
[2-0] |
Lansdowne Road,
Dublin |
46,000 |
|
17-Oct-1990 |
England
2 Poland 0 |
[1-0] |
Empire Stadium,
Wembley, London |
77,040 |
|
14-Nov-1990 |
Republic
of Ireland 1 England 1 |
[0-0] |
Lansdowne Road,
Dublin |
45,000 |
|
14-Nov-1990 |
Turkey
0 Poland 1 |
[0-1] |
Inönü
Stadyumu, İstanbul |
4,868 |
|
27-Mar-1991 |
England
1 Republic of Ireland 1 |
[1-1] |
Empire Stadium,
Wembley, London |
77,753 |
|
17-Apr-1991 |
Poland
3 Turkey 0 |
[0-0] |
Stadion Wojska
Polskiego, Warszawa |
1,061 |
|
01-May-1991 |
Republic
of Ireland 0 Poland 0 |
[0-0] |
Lansdowne Road,
Dublin |
46,000 |
|
01-May-1991 |
Turkey
0 England 1 |
[0-1] |
Izmir Atatürk
Stadyumu,
İzmir |
20,000 |
|
16-Oct-1991 |
Poland
3 Republic of Ireland 3 |
[0-1] |
Stadion Lecha,
Poznań |
11,400 |
|
16-Oct-1991 |
England
1 Turkey 0 |
[1-0] |
Empire Stadium,
Wembley, London |
50,896 |
|
13-Nov-1991 |
Poland
1 England 1 |
[1-0] |
Stadion Lecha,
Poznań |
10,300 |
|
13-Nov-1991 |
Turkey
1 Republic of Ireland 3 |
[1-1] |
Inönü
Stadi, İstanbul |
33,601 |
Notes
Seven of the 12 matches in this group ended in a win for one
of the teams; six of those seven involved Turkey. Of the six matches
involving only the other teams, five ended in draws. Fortunately,
advancement did not hinge on how many goals were pumped past the Turkish
goalkeeper. In fact, the group's winner, England, managed only a pair of
1-0 victories against Turkey and won in Turkey against the run of play.
Still, the group was one of those that gave reason for later adoption of
competition rules that ignored goals scored against the last place team in
breaking deadlocks in points among the top teams.
Only first-place teams in the qualifying groups advanced to
the eight-team final tournament. The match that on paper gave England the points
edge, their 2-0 victory over Poland, was played on the competition's
first day. But the match that actually decided the group was England's
return visit to Poland on the competition's last day. The Republic of
Ireland had a far superior goal difference and could be expected to beat Turkey
away on the same day, which meant England had to draw against Poland to win the
group and advance to the finals. An Irish victory and an English loss
would give Ireland the spot in the finals. Poland could match Ireland on
points but not on goal difference unless they trounced England by a wide margin,
an event so unlikely they really had nothing but pride at stake.
Ireland beat Turkey 3-1, as expected. England needed
the draw. The Poles took the lead in the first half on an own goal.
Things looked increasingly bleak for England as the second half wore on with no
further scoring. Finally, in the 78th minute, Gary Lineker saved England
yet again with a superb effort, twisting in mid-air to reach a ball headed on from a corner kick and
volleying it into the net. England were through.
Further Information
The UEFA
website has the results, match
summaries and tables for all qualifying groups, although its tables incorrectly
award three points for a win instead of
two and its summaries do not include lineups, goalscorers or goal times. A
correct version of the tables, along with the bare results, may be found in the Rec.Sport.Soccer
Statistical Foundation Archive. Match summaries that include
goalscorers and goal times but not lineups are available from
the archives of La
Gazetta della Sport. We are not aware of any website that
offers complete match summaries for the 1988 preliminary competition.
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