Group B. West Germany – Portugal. A lot was written and debated for months about the German crisis. There were plenty of problems: in a general way, the German fiasco in the European club tournaments was seen as a big objective decline of German football. No good players, was the conclusion and, therefore, no expectations for the European championship. German press was traditionally harsh on the national team, but this time criticism appeared right on target. Derwall was under attack for a long time and since he was not replaced yet, the question was when – before or after the European finals. The Federation insisted that the coach will stay until the end of his contract in 1986. It did not look good, for the players were not happy with him on one hand, and on the other – feuds plagued the national team. It was Bayern vs the others in 1982, now it was 1. FC Koln vs VfB Stuttgart with some personal fights on the side, particularly Schumacher vs Stielike. Rummenigge had his mind on negotiations with Inter (Milan). Derwall tried some newcomers – not exactly new or young – to everybody’s disappointment. It looked like star players of the feuding camps wanted them for their own reasons and the coach had no real say. The situation seemed entirely chaotic and the Federation imposed a ban on talking to the press for the first time: it was interpreted as big loss of direction as if nobody really knew what to do.
The silence triggered vicious rumors, but some of them were quite true – Shuster used an injury as a ‘polite’ way to refuse playing for the national team. Derwall clearly had no guts – he fiddled with changing players’ positions, but the experiments were lame at best. Rummenigge should have been left out of the team, for instance – he was no longer at his best, never mind his negotiations with Inter. Instead, Derwall moved him to midfield. The mood was dark, the team was no good, but outside West Germany nobody dared to discard Derwall’s team – everybody knew well enough that the Germans were always able to get together when it mattered. Portugal was not that interesting – the team was based on Benfica and FC Porto, both teams currently making impression, but, at best, Portugal was seen at the beginning of recovery and nothing special. Portuguese press was upbeat, but nobody shared its optimism outside the country.
The match proved German critics and Portuguese optimists right – Portugal was stronger, better organized, and much more entertaining. The Germans were clueless, particularly in attack. It was 0-0 at the end, but Portugal was clearly ‘the moral winner’. The German team was severely criticized by Germans – Beckenbauer, Netzer, Lattek were especially merciless and, unfortunately, right.
Romania – Spain. Nothing much was expected. Mysterious Romania was not expected to play a big role – it was noted, that the team was without two important regulars due to injuries. Lucescu was unknown coach and his approach suggested general weakness – he insisted on friendlies away from home. As if Romanians had to get familiar with outside football… and the coach was unable to use some players, because Dinamo (Bucharest) was involved in the European Champions Cup. The news of Spain were mostly about troubles – Barcelona and Athletic (Bilbao) went into massive fight after the Spanish Cup final and the whole question was how the players of these clubs will see eye to eye in the national team: they were almost half of the whole squad, 8 players… Apart from that, one thing was sure – both Spain and Romania knew how to run 90 minutes. Spain was well known for ugly, brutal football, the key masters of butchery were at hand, so nothing good was expected – kick, spit, fight, and very likely prevail against Romania.
The match was not exactly what observers predicted – yes, both teams run fine,tackled fine, and were not especially entertaining, but it was better than expected, if somewhat in waves. Spain scored a penalty, later the Romanians equalized and in general were more vigorous and better organized. But Spain was not ugly and unusually creative. The Spanish coach was not happy after the final whistle – he thought his team played average game and changes were in order. Lucescu was rather optimistic and satisfied with the tie. Rightly so – Romania was absent from major tournaments so long, now the only thing was to make good impression.
West Germany – Romania. Both coaches faced problems before the game – Lucescu had to replace suspended key defender. It was a matter of dispute with UEFA – all finalists asked yellow cards collected in the qualifying process to be voided at the finals. UEFA answered that rules are rules. Thus, Lucescu had to replace his defender. Derwall had to improve his team, which meant changes – not very convincing, as it turned out. Rummenigge was moved back to attacking line. Matthaus and Meier were placed among the starters. More or less, full change of midfield and going from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.
Well, changes did not change anything – Germany was sluggish and still lacking creativity. Romania fought well, but German physicality was too much for them. Hagi, only 19-years old, had to be replaced after the first half – he was canceled out by burly German defenders. West Germany managed to extract 2-1 victory, but it was mostly a victory of the will, not of the skill. If not for Schumacher, the result could have been different – a tie most likely.
Spain – Portugal. Neighborhood derby, which the Spaniards hoped to win – traditionally, they were stronger.
Contrary to expectation, it was lively and entertaining match. The battle was mostly in midfield, but both teams tried everything possible to crate attacks. In the second half the Portuguese increased the speed and were more dangerous, but bad luck and good goalkeeping prevented them from scoring a second goal. However, the Spaniards were also dangerous and also had a reason to complain from bad luck. Here a new star was discovered – the Portuguese midfielder Chalana. Spain answered with its own wonderful player – Victor. The ending was fair – 1-1 after a good show.
Spain – West Germany. Germany was leading the group after 2 games with 3 points, but nothing was decided yet – everybody had a chance to reach the semi-finals. Still, the Germans were at the best position, they needed only a tie. Not in the German mentality, though – before the game Stielike said that they will go for a win. Playing for a tie would be demoralizing and very dangerous. Derwall did not make any changes – satisfied or not with the team which played against Romania, he had no more options. The Spanish camp was rather quiet and what was there to say? To beat the Germans was ever difficult; a tie was not a guarantee…
West Germany went to battle for victory, but Spain showed some claws too. The first half was probably the best football the Germans were capable of at this time. Arconada, however, saved whatever was there to save. Still, at half-time the Germans looked fine- Spain missed a penalty, a great psychological advantage for the Germans. Southern teams usually fell apart after such misfortune, but if Germans expected easy second half, they were very wrong. Spain not only came back, but dominated the rest of the match. 20 minutes before the end the German team visibly changed its approach – Rummenigge moved back to midfield. The idea was obvious – going for tie. Spain attacked and attacked and at last the inevitable happened and in German manner too: Spain scored in the last minute. Maceda was the hero with a header. The referee prolonged the match with 90 seconds, but that was only prolonging German agony – the masters of late goals, turning a lost game around, got a taste of their own medicine. Spain moved ahead, West Germany was out… the other group game finished at the same time. West Germany was out and rightly so.
Portugal – Romania. Both teams had practically equal chances – the differences were tiny: essentially, only a win would qualify either team, but Romania had to make it with 2 goals difference. Calculations were purely academic – a lot depended on the result of Spain-West Germany match too. Portugal could have reached the semi-finals with a tie too, but it had to be fantastic tie – something like 3-3, 4-4. So, winning was the only way for both teams. So, both coaches made changes with this aim in mind: Gomes was finally a starter and Portugal for the first time started with 2 strikers. Lucescu changed 3 players, the biggest addition was Nicolae Negrila in attack. This may have been a surprise, for Negrila was listed as a defender – but it also fell into the realm of empty speculations, for the Romanians were generally unknown.
The match was slow – partly because the weather was hot and stuffy, partly because of carefulness, particularly Romanian one. Portugal was unlucky – Chalana was injured early and replaced – but was still the better organized squad. With time, they became more dominant and the only question in the second half was when they will score. But there was no scoring, Romania defended well enough. Then Fernando Cabrita made his excellent move: he fielded the veteran Nene in the 67th minute. And he scored the only goal of the game in the 81st minute. Portugal qualified. Romania was out. Lucescu more or less excused his players – he blamed inexperience. Cabrita was understandably upbeat, promising hard time to the French in the semi-final.
1.SPAIN 3 1 2 0 3- 2 4
2.PORTUGAL 3 1 2 0 2- 1 4
3.West Germany 3 1 1 1 2- 2 3
4.Romania 3 0 1 2 2- 4 1