Group 2. A British derby first – England – Eire. The Irish were outsiders, but match against England is something else, so there was possibility of surprise. Still, England was favourite by far – Cruijff, for example, thought whoever lost in the other match, Holland vs USSR, will see the semifinals only on TV. Yet, it was a match between rivals playing the same style and for the Irish motivation was extremely high – it was matter of national pride.
And in the 6th minute Ray Houghton scored for Eire with a header – a classic English goal against England! The rest of the match the Irish dedicated to destroying English efforts, entirely succeeding in that.
England 0, Republic of Ireland (misspelled!) 1. Jacky Charlton prevailed over his own countrymen at their own game, playing it better than they did, and became instant Irish hero. So far, there were hostile banners against him at Irish matches, but now it was all different.
Holland – USSR 0-1. Knowing the stakes, both teams went full throttle ahead – it was a matter of life and death.
Vagiz Khidiatullin tackles Marco van Basten, Anatoly Demyanenko close from behind to help. The first half team USSR survived the Dutch storm, Dassaev played one of his greatest games and the result was 0-0 – although it may have been 3-0 Holland. Perhaps that was crucial – the Dutch did not score.
In the second half the Soviets showed their own teeth and now the roles were slightly reversed – it was Ruud Gullit trying to clear away the ball from dangerous Oleg Protassov. The tired old wisdom ‘if you don’t score, the opponent will’ came true again: Ratz scored for USSR in the 54th minute. Now the Dutch were furious, but still unable to score – the ball bounced away from the goalpost once, Dassaev saved miraculously, the ball missed the net by a hair or was deflected just a tiny bit by a defender. However, the Soviets did not play only defense – they tried to attack at every opportunity and perhaps had a case for penalty not given to them. As a whole, they managed to keep the Dutch from scoring, but the game was highly entertaining and both teams played excellent football.
England – Holland 1-3. The Irish destroyed Cruijff’s prediction – England’s loss equalized the group situation, nothing was decided after the first round. Once again it a matter of life and death. After losing their first games both coaches made changes and in that more successful was Rinus Michels – he benched Bosman and van’t Schip and put Erwin Koeman among the starters – which changed his tactical scheme significantly: now van Basten was the sole striker with Gullit supporting him. Given the traditional Dutch respect to British football, it was rather cautious concept, but it worked fine. As usual, England went into attack and pressed Holland back, but… this was predictable and since England never had a plan B…
It was 1-0 Holland just before half time. In the 56th minute Robson equalized, but Marco van Basten kept scoring.
Van Basten celebrates a hattrick. England was out, once again failing at big finals.
Eire – USSR 1-1. USSR traditionally had troubles against tough British teams and the Irish were now especially spurred by having a chance to qualify to the next round. Of course, nobody relaxed and both coaches took the game seriously, but looks like Lobanovsky made a tactical mistake – he decided to play just like against Holland, that is looking for opportunities for counterattacks. But that presumes aggressively attacking opponent which Eire was not, just the opposite: they were deeply entrenched in defense, waiting for a rare opportunity to pass a long ball to their solitary striker when there was no defender around. The Soviets tried to bait the Irish by giving them the initiative, but it was not working – the Irish were perfectly happy to posses the ball and waste time. Team USSR was unable to change their tactics, so the Irish suddenly saw that the devil was not all that dangerous and controlling the game they slowly pushed ahead and tried to score.
Strangely, this photo somewhat shows the game best: modest Irish somewhat pushing forward and the Soviets backing up and keeping away from the ball.
To their own peril – in the 39th minute Ronnie Whelan scored beautiful goal and now looked like Eire was going to be the sensation of the finals, winning a second match. The Soviets played a rather formless and clueless game to the end, but since they had classy players managed to equalized in the 75th minute. The Irish controlled the match to the end, but there was old problem which a team with traditionally limited resources is never able to overcome: scoring troubles. Even scoring one goal was often a matter of good luck, but two… the match ended 1-1 and nobody was unhappy – both teams quite satisfied with the point.
Eire – Holland 0-1. It was again a matter of life and death – a tie automatically eliminated Holland (to hope on big English win over USSR was unrealistic). The Irish, however, aimed at a tie – Holland was too strong to hope for more.
The match just went as the picture shows – the Dutch domineered, but their great supremacy did not result in goals. Modest Irish mostly fought to prevent the Dutch from scoring, but used well their rare opportunities and came closer to scoring than their mighty opponent.
Then it was matter of resources… Michels increased the Dutch striking power in the second half by replacing Erwin Koeman and Muhren with Kift and Bosman. It worked – in the 82nd minute Kift kicked the ball and Bonner cracked – 1-0 Holland. After the game Michels said the goal was lucky. Jack Charlton shared the same opinion, but from the losing end.
England – USSR 1-3. England, already eliminated, had nothing to play for – except helping the Irish, or rather Jack Charlton, to reach the semifinals. Bobby Robson said that, but it was really a jest. The Soviets needed only a tie to qualify, but calculations were at work: finishing 2nd in the group meant playing against West Germany, a team Lobanovsky prefferred to avoid. Robson fielded some new players which somewaht confirmed the lack of motivation in the English camp. The Soviets played with pretty much their best: Dassaev and Bessonov were injured fatally, Litovchenko was back from serving suspencion. Shaky Demianenko was replaced by Ratz, who was familiar with the job. England, eliminated or not, never really gave up a game, but somewhat surprisingly team USSR played free and easy game.
Igor Belanov – here watching Kenny Samson getting the ball – was not the fast and dangerous torpedo, but it was attributed to a new role in midfield. Yet, the Soviets were very much together, perfectly organized and attack-oriented.
They got the upper hand and it was clear England was not going to win. At the end, it was 3-1 for USSR.
1. USSR 2 1 0 5-2 5
2. Holland 2 0 1 4-2 4
3. Eire 1 1 1 2-2 3
4. England 0 0 3 2-7 0