My favourite England v Italy match was in November
1977. England had been drawn with Italy
in the qualifying group for the World Cup to be held in Argentina in 1978. Back in those days Yugoslavia and the Soviet
Union existed so there were only enough countries for groups of 4. Along with Italy and England were Finland and
Luxembourg and so the matches between the big two were going to decide the
winner of the group. Only one team
qualified, so those two matches would be crucial. Italy had won the first game in Rome the year
before when England were managed by Don Revie.
Failure to score enough goals against Finland and Luxembourg meant
England went into this game needing to win by quite a few. Revie had been lured to the Middle East by
the promise of unbelievable wealth and so Ron Greenwood was put in charge. His first match in charge had been a friendly
at home to Switzerland when he selected 7 players from the Liverpool side who
had just won the European Cup. England
drew 0-0, and then went to Luxembourg and could only manage a 2-0 win.
So it was to a full house at Wembley that England ventured
to try and find some way of reaching the World Cup Finals. They had missed out 4 years earlier, due to a
stubborn Polish defence and England were facing the prospect 16 years since
they successfully went through a qualifying campaign. Greenwood was bold with his selection,
handing first caps to Peter Barnes (Manchester City), Steve Coppell (Manchester
United) and Bob Latchford (Everton).
Barnes would play wide on the left with Coppell wide on the right and
Latchford was the target man up front.
Keegan would play just off Latchford as Greenwood was looking to
re-create the Toshack/Keegan partnership so successful at Liverpool during the
70’s. The midfield was policed by Ray
Wilkins (Chelsea) and Trevor Brooking (West Ham). Brooking and Keegan would go on to form a
lethal partnership and England were rarely beaten when both of them were on the
pitch together.
Italy contained some good players. Dino Zoff in goal, Claudio Gentile and the
captain, Giancinto Facchetti in defence.
Marco Tardelli, Franco Causio and Giancarlo Antognoni in midifield with
Roberto Bettega and Francesco Graziani up front. Zoff, Tardelli, Causio and Gentile would all
be in the squad which won the World Cup in Spain 1982.
A fantastic atmosphere as the crowd cheered every
attack. Coppell linked up with Keegan,
but his shot went over the bar. Brooking
was involved in everything, and in the 11th minute he had the ball
on the right wing and his cross into the area was met by Keegan’s header which
looped over Zoff and England were in front.
The goal difference between the two sides was still in Italy’s favour,
but only by 1 goal. Peter Barnes had a
couple of chances to increase England’s lead but he shot wide on each
occasion. He then went on a mazy run
past several Italians in the area, but Zoff saved the shot.
As the half was coming to an end, Emlyn Hughes played a ball
into the Italian box and Benetti half cleared it. As the ball was running out towards the
corner flag on the right wing, Keegan chased it with Tardelli. Before the England captain could get to the
ball, Tardelli elbowed Keegan in the face.
Unbelievably, the ref took no action.
At half-time England lead 1-0. The second half was virtually one-way traffic
as England pushed for the second goal.
Dave Watson forced a good save from Zoff when he volleyed from a
corner. Then with 10 minutes to go,
Keegan picked up the ball on the right and as he neared the area, twisting and
turning, he flicked the ball into the area where Brooking was unmarked. Brooking slotted the ball past Zoff and
England were 2-0 up. At least at this
stage Italy had to win in their last match against Luxembourg.
It was a famous win for England, but all in vain as Italy
beat Luxembourg 3-0 to win the group and qualify for the World Cup Finals. For England, though, this promised better
things to come after the dire years of Don Revie.
ENGLAND: Clemence (Liverpool); Neal
(Liverpool), Hughes (Liverpool), Watson (Man City), Cherry (Leeds); Wilkins
(Chelsea), Brooking (West Ham); Coppell (Man Utd), Latchford (Everton) [Pearson
(Man Utd)], Keegan (Hamburg) [Francis (Birmingham)], Barnes (Man City)
GOALS: Keegan (11),
Brooking (80)
ITALY: Zoff; Tardelli, Gentile, Facchetti
(Cuccureddu), Mozzini; Causio, Benetti, Zaccarelli, Antognoni; Bettega,
Graziani (Sala)
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