World Cup - Day Thirteen

DAY THIRTEEN

Friday 25^th June 1982

GROUP TWO, Estadio El Molinon Gijon. (17:15)

WEST GERMANY   (1)   1   (Hrubesch 10)

AUSTRIA   (0)   0

West Germany: Schumacher; Kaltz, K-H Forster, Stielike, Briegel; Littbarski, Dremmler, Breitner, Magath; Rummenigge (Matthaus), Hrubesch (Fischer)

Austria: Koncilia; Krauss, Pezzey, Degeorgi, Obermanyer; Hattenberger, Weber, Prohaska, Hintermaier; Schachner, Krankl

This day was to go down as one of the most memorable in World Cup history.  FIFA changed their rules on scheduling as a result of the events which occurred on 25^th June 1982.  The problem was that these were the last matches in three of the groups and each of the sides knew exactly what they had to do to go through.  They also knew how to manipulate the system.  This had not been a problem in previous tournaments but it was the Germans who found a way round things when they arranged their match with Austria in Gijon.  Austria had won both their matches so far, with the Germans suffering a surprise defeat to Algeria.  Algeria had lost to Austria but beaten Chile so they had finished on 4pts.  Austria were also on 4pts but with a superior goal difference to Algeria.  West Germany were on 2pts but also with a better goal difference than Algeria.  So if West Germany won by no more than 2 goals, both they and Austria would be through.  Horst Hrubesch put West Germany in front within 10 minutes of the start and that was, quite emphatically that.  The result suited both sides so they just knocked it about between each other to play out the remaining 80 minutes.  The crowd was incensed at the sheer audacity and bare faced cheek of the whole episode and they voiced their derision loud and clear through most of the second half.  Both teams therefore booked their place in the second phase and the poor old Algerians had to go home.

GROUP FOUR, Estadio San Mames, Bilbao. (17:15)

KUWAIT   (0)   0

ENGLAND   (1)   1   (Francis 27)

Kuwait: Al-Tarabulsi; N. Mubarak, Al-Mubarak (Al-Shemmari), Mayouf, M. Mubarak; Al-Houti, Al-Buloushi, Al-Anbari, Al-Suwayed; Marzouq, Al-Dakheel

England: Shilton; Neal, Thompson, Foster, Mills; Coppell, Hoddle, Wilkins, Rix; Francis, Mariner

England had won both of their group matches and were already confirmed as group winners after France failed to beat the Czechs the day before.  Kuwait had impressed during their draw with Czechoslovakia but were well beaten by the French in a controversial game.  England made a couple of changes with Foster coming in for Butcher and Hoddle starting ahead of Robson.  England were inventive early on but couldn’t convert their chances until in the 27^th minute, Peter Shilton cleared the ball upfield and Mariner and Francis combined to leave Trevor Francis to beat the keeper from the right-hand edge of the area.  Without the motivation of needing to win by more England settled for a simple 1-0 win.  Hoddle had a couple of good chances to score but blasted over on each occasion.  A perfect record from the group stages and England went into the second phase in buoyant mood, with hopefully, Keegan and Brooking to return.

GROUP FIVE, Estadio Luis Casanova, Valencia. (21:00)

SPAIN   (0)   0

NORTHERN IRELAND   (1)   1   (Armstrong 47)

Spain: Arconada; Camacho, Alexanco, Tendillo, Gordillo; Alonso, Saura, Sanchez; Juanito, Satrustegui (Quini), Lopez-Ufarte (Gallego)

Northern Ireland: Jennings; J. Nicholl, C. Nicholl, McClelland, Donaghy; O’Neill, McCreery, McIlroy (Cassidy); Hamilton, Armstrong, Whiteside (Nelson)

Another capacity crowd in the Mestalla expected to see the hosts cruise past Northern Ireland.  But this was not the Spain of today, this was a Spanish team racked with nerves at the pressure & expectation of hosting the biggest tournament in world football.  But this night belonged to the Irish.  It has gone down as one of the greatest nights ever in Northern Irish football. 

Pat Jennings was at his best as the Spanish pressed forward and frustrated them on several occasions.  The Spanish looked dangerous from set-pieces but it was goalless at half-time.  Early in the second half, Armstrong pounced on a loose pass deep in his own half and drove into the Spanish half before laying the ball to his right where Hamilton skinned Tendillo to get to the bye-line.  He crossed the ball into the box and keeper, Luis Arconada, probably one of Europe’s best at the time, inexplicably palmed the ball out to the penalty spot where Armstrong was lurking.  Instead of placing the ball in either corner, Armstrong fired a right-foot shot under the hapless keeper and into the net.  Amazingly, the Irish were 1-0 up against Spain, in Spain.

Despite the fact this result would see both teams go through, the Spaniards couldn’t stand the embarrassment of losing at home and so threw everything at Jennings goal but the Arsenal man was equal to the task.  Midway through the half, Mal Donaghy was sent-off for a 2^nd bookable offence when he lashed out at Camacho.  But despite their man advantage, Spain couldn’t break through and Northern Ireland had pulled off a famous win.

Final Group Tables

World Cup 1982 - Day Nine

DAY NINE

Monday 21^st June 1982

GROUP TWO, Estadio Carlos Tartiere, Oviedo. (17:15)

AUSTRIA   (0)   2   (Schachner 56 Krankl, 67)

ALGERIA   (0)   0  

Austria: Koncilia; Krauss, Degeorgi, Pezzey, Obermayer; Hattenberger, Baumeister, Prohaska, Hintermaier; Schachner, Krankl

Algeria: Cerbah; Guendouz, Merzekane, Mansouri, Kourichi; Fergani, Belloumi (Bensaoula), Dahleb (Tlemcani); Zidane, Madjer, Assad

This was a much anticipated match after both won their opening matches.  Algeria were still buzzing from their victory over the mighty Germans.  Austria had eased past Chile although the 1-0 win would suggest otherwise.  Both teams knew the winner of this match would definitely go through to the next phase.  Both sides had decent penalty shouts in the first half and Algeria found Koncilia in fine form in the Austrian goal.  10 minutes into the second half and Austria came forward and Welzl’s shot was blocked but the ball fell to Walter Schachner who swung a foot at it and his shot went in off the post.  10 minutes later Welzl, who’d only come on at half-time, was again involved as he brought the ball forward after an Algerian attack had broken down.  As the defence struggled to work out who to mark, they left the most dangerous player, Hans Krankl and he fired a left foot shot from the edge of the area in for the 2^nd goal.  Austria were 2 wins from 2 games and through to the next round.

GROUP FOUR, Estadio Jose Zorrilla, Valladolid. (17:15)

FRANCE   (2)   4   (Genghini 31, Platini 43, Six 48, Bossis 90)

KUWAIT   (0)   1   (Al-Buloushi 75)

France: Ettori; Amoros, Janvion (Lopez), Tresor, Bossis; Genghini, Platini (Girard), Giresse; Lacombe, Soler, Six

Kuwait: Al-Tarabulsi; N. Mubarak, Al-Mubarak (Al-Shemmari), Mayouf, M. Mubarak; Al-Houti, Al-Buloushi, Al-Anbari, Karam (Marzouq); Sultan Al-Dakheel

France had been beaten by England in their opening game whereas Kuwait had earned a creditable draw against the Czechs in their first ever World Cup match.  This game became infamous for what happened towards the end of the match, but for the first half France were the more dominant.  Just after the half-hour France had a free-kick just outside the area just right of centre and Genghini curled a beautiful shot over the wall and into the top corner for the opening goal.  Six had the ball in the net earlier, but it was ruled offside when Giresse played a one-two and had run too far ahead of the ball for the return.  Then just before the break, Giresse played Platini in and he calmly passed the ball into the net, past Al-Tarabulsi.  It was as simple as they come but underlined the sheer quality of this French midfield.

France began for the second half, where they left off in the first as Platini played a lovely ball over the defence for Six to take it on the chest and then meet it on the half-volley to put France 3-0 up.

Maxime Bossis then surged forward, played a one-two with Giresse and was put clear of the defence to round the keeper and score, but the flag went up for offside and the goal was ruled out.  Kuwait then got a goal back when a quickly taken free-kick gave Al-Buloushi the chance to score.  France then had the ball in the net again, but Amoros was adjudged offside after he’d come forward from the back looking to get in on the act.  Then the fun and games began.  Another good passing move saw Platini play Giresse in and the Kuwait defence stopped because they heard the whistle.  However, the referee hadn’t blown his whistle and Giresse was most definitely not offside, but when Giresse went onto score the Kuwait players were incensed.  Not only the players but the management and even the President of Kuwait FA in the stands, and he ordered the players off in protest.  The game was held up for about 15 minutes and unbelievably the referee ordered a drop-ball to resolve the issue.  Had the French been losing at the time it is hard to see them agree to this solution, but they got on with it and eventually scored their 4^th goal.  But not before the 5^th disallowed goal of the game when Kuwait had the ball in the net.  A header looked to be going in when inexplicably, Al-Dakheel, who was in an offside position, helped it over the line.  Had he left the ball he may not have been flagged for offside.  Then in the 90^th minute, Bossis forced his way forward and then fired the ball in from a tight angle.  4-1 was a good response to their defeat to England and with the Czechs also losing to England, the French knew a draw against the Czechs may be all they need to progress.

GROUP FIVE, Estadio La Romareda, Zaragoza. (21:00)

NORTHERN IRELAND   (1)   1   (Armstrong 9)

HONDURAS   (1)   1   (Laing 60)

Northern Ireland: Jennings; J. Nicholl, C. Nicholl, McClelland, Donaghy; M. O’Neill (Healy), McCreery, McIlroy; Hamilton, Armstrong, Whiteside (Brotherston)

Honduras: Arzu; Gutierrez, Costly, Cruz, Villegas; Maradiaga, Zelaya, Yearwood; Betancourt, Figueroa, Norales (Laing)

Both countries had drawn their opening game and with Spain winning the night before, they knew a win here would go a long way towards securing a place in the next round.  The Irish were soon on the attack and a left-foot cross from Norman Whiteside into the area found Martin O’Neill free, but his header went over when he really should’ve done better.  10 minutes in and Ireland had a free-kick over on the left wing.  McIlroy curled it in right-footed, it hit the bar, bounced down for Chris Nicholl to head it against the bar again, where Gerry Armstrong was on hand to head the ball over the line and the Irish were in front.  Many were expecting an avalanche of goals but the Hondurans were made of sterner stuff.  Not long after, Betancourt saw his shot hit the bar of Jennings goal and bounced back out again.  Towards the end of the half, Armstrong hit the post with a shot as the Irish tried to force a 2^nd goal. 

Early in the second half, Whiteside thought he’d scored his first international goal but it was disallowed for Hamilton’s push on a defender as he headed the ball down for Whiteside.  On the hour, Honduras had a corner on the right and it was met by Betancourt whose bullet header was superbly pushed over the bar by Jennings.  The resultant corner was then headed in by Laing on the near post.  Both teams had chances to add to their tally, but it ended 1-1.  Northern Ireland would now need to get a result from their last match against the hosts.

World Cup 1982 - Qualification (AFC & OFC)

The Asia and Oceania section had 20 teams contesting the competition to whittle down to 2 qualifiers.  Iran withdrew before the draw was made, so the countries were split into 4 groups for the first section with the winners going into a final group where the top two progress to the finals in Spain.

Group One: 5 teams play each other on a home-and-away basis

Group Two: 5 teams play each other once with all the games being held in Saudi Arabia.

Group Three: 4 teams pay each other once with all the games being held in Kuwait.

Group Four: 6 teams, with all matches played in Hong Kong.  Firstly, there would be ‘Classification Matches’ to determine the make-up of the group stage.  Two groups of three teams would then be set up with each team playing each other once.  After that there would be a Semi-Finals stage, leading to a final to determine the qualifier for the final round in the region.

GROUP ONE

Australia, Chinese Tapei, Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand

New Zealand won the group as they went through it unbeaten and only conceding 3 goals.  They started off with a thrilling 3-3 draw with Australia, when Grant Turner, Steve Wooddin and Steve Sumner scored.  Brian Turner then scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 win in Fiji.  They were held to a 0-0 draw in Chinese Tapei and later won 2-0 in Australia.

Later in the campaign, Australia thrashed Fiji, 10-0.  Remarkably, all the goals were scored by just two players.  Gary Cole scored 7, including a penalty, and David Mitchell scored the other 3 goals.  If that wasn’t bad enough, Fiji had to fly from Melbourne to Auckland to play New Zealand just two days later.  They were then thumped, 13-0.  Steve Sumner scored 6.  Australia were then humbled when they were beaten in Indonesia by a goal in the last 2 minutes.  They then failed to beat Chinese Taipei and they couldn’t catch New Zealand.

QUALIFIER: New Zealand

GROUP TWO

Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria

All these games were played in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  In the end the home side won every game and therefore the group with it.  They didn’t concede a goal either.  All the games produced results as Iraq finished 2^nd with Qatar 3^rd.

GROUP THREE

Kuwait, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand

All these games were played in Kuwait City and as with Group Two, the home side used their advantage to their advantage, by winning all three of their matches and no conceding a goal.  The final game of the group was between Kuwait and South Korea with the winner going through.  Kuwait won 2-0 with goals from Al-Anbari and Al-Ghanen.

GROUP FOUR

For reasons best known to the organisers, they arranged a preliminary section known as “Classification Matches” where the 6 teams played one-off matches to determine who would go into the two groups for the main section.  All the games were played in Hong Kong and just before Christmas, 1980.  China, Japan and North Korea won those games and so the two groups were decided, with Group A holding China and Japan, with North Korea going into Group B with two of the losers from the Classification section.  North Korea had won their classification match, 3-0 against Macau, so this gave them the honour of an easier Group stage.

GROUP A

Teams played each other once and China beat both Japan and Macau to win the group, with Japan finishing 2^nd to also go through.

GROUP B

Hong Kong drew with Singapore, with North Korea beating Singapore.  So when Hong Kong and North Korea met, Hong Kong only needed a draw to join North Korea in the next round.  They did, 2-2.

SEMI FINALS

North Korea beat Japan, 1-0.  In the other Semi, Hong Kong and China drew 0-0 after extra time.  The penalty shootout saw the Chinese win 5-4 to go through to meet North Korea in the final

FINAL

After three weeks of a qualifying campaign, China were now in the final with North Korea.  2-2 after 90 minutes, the Chinese eventually won 4-2 to qualify for the Final Round.

FINAL ROUND

China, Kuwait, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia.

The last three representatives from this section in World Cup finals, Australia (1974), Israel (1970) and North Korea (1966) were absent from this section so all four teams knew qualification would give them their first ever appearance at a finals.  The games were held between September-December 1981.

China and New Zealand played out a 0-0 draw in Beijing.  But then a week later in the return fixture in Auckland, Ricki Herbert’s goal on half-time gave New Zealand a 1-0 win.  New Zealand was home again a week later when Kuwait were the visitors.  Steve Wooddin put the home side in front, but Al-Dakheel equalised from the penalty spot just after the break.  With just 8 minutes to go Yacoub got the winner for Kuwait to give them a 2-1 win.

But if Kuwait thought they’d done all the hard work, they then travelled to Beijing and lost, 0-3 to China, to send the Chinese to the top of the group.  Saudi Arabia then took their bow at the beginning of November when Kuwait visited them.  Al-Anbari scored the only goal of the game to give Kuwait a 1-0 win and they’d now played all their away games, winning two of them.

Saudi Arabia were then up against China in Malaysia and were 2-0 up inside the opening 15 minutes.  But the Chinese put another good performance together and 2 goals in as many minutes just after the hour brought things level and then 2 more goals in the last 15 minutes gave China a 4-2 win.  A week later, still in Malaysia, China and Saudi Arabia met again and this time China won 2-0, to give themselves a great chance of qualifying.

It was now clear, Saudi Arabia was the weakest team in the group and therefore matches against them could determine the qualifiers, and possibly on goal difference.  New Zealand met the Saudis in Auckland but were held, 2-2, throwing their progress into a little doubt.

Kuwait then played host to China, knowing the Chinese probably only needed a draw.  Al-Anbari was again on target as Kuwait won 1-0.  With three games left to play in the group, China had finished on 7pts.  They were 2pts ahead of Kuwait, who had 2 to play, and 3pts ahead of New Zealand, who also had 2 to play.

Into December and Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia, 2-0 with both goals from Al-Dakheel to put them in a strong position.  Things were really tight, as China and Kuwait were locked on 7pts with Kuwait having a game in hand.  China had a superior goal difference and that could prove crucial. 

In mid-December, Kuwait and New Zealand met in Kuwait City.  The home side only needed a draw, but New Zealand could really do with winning.  Any defeat for Kuwait would hand the qualification to China.  Goals for Kuwait from Al-Hashash and Kameel cancelled out the two from Sumner and Wynton Rufer.  The game ended 2-2 which helped Kuwait confirm their qualification for Spain.

To sort out the 2^nd qualifier, it all came down to the final match of the group.  In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia played host to New Zealand.  There was nothing in this for the home side but the visitors needed to win by 6 clear goals, otherwise China were going through.  16 minutes into the game and youngster, Wynton Rufer put the Kiwis ahead.  A minute later Brian Turner made it 2-0.  With 7 minutes of the first half remaining, Rufer then banged in his 2^nd of the game and then Steve Wooddin got the 4^th almost straight after.  Brian Turner then scored his 2^nd of the game right on half-time, when he converted a penalty.  5-0 up at the break and belief was all around the Kiwis.  If things stood as they were, they would be into a play-off against China, but score another goal and they’d be through automatically.  They spurned several chances in the second half, clearly through the excitement of it all and the game ended 5-0 to New Zealand.  Remarkably, they’d overturned the goal difference deficit and earned a play-off with China.

10^th January 1982 in Singapore and the play-off to determine the other qualifier from this section.  Wooddin put New Zealand in front by half-time and then early in the second period, Rufer scored to give them a 2-0 lead.  Huang got one back but New Zealand hung on to pull off a famous victory.

QUALIFIERS: Kuwait, New Zealand

From the first qualifying match in March 1980 to the last one in January 1982, we now had our 24 qualifiers to join Spain and Argentina.

West Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, USSR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, England, Yugoslavia, Italy, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Algeria, Cameroon, Kuwait, New Zealand.