Group F

Group F. 
02.06.86 (16.00) Monterrey, Estadio Universitario

MAR - POL 0:0

(~19000) Martinez URU, Quiniou FRA, Traore MLI

MAR: Zaki (c) - Khalifa, El Biaz, Bouyahyaoui, Lemriss - Dolmy, El Haddaoui (69 Souleymani), Timoumi (90 Khairi) - M.Merry, Krimau
POL: Młynarczyk - Kubicki (46 Przybyś), Wójcicki, Majewski, Ostrowski - Matysik, Buncol, Komornicki, Boniek (c) - Smolarek, Dziekanowski (56 Urban)

booked: Timoumi

It all depends... for many, Morocco was a surprise; for others – Poland was not much at the moment and the result was expected. The Africans was the better team, especially when their opponents appeared to be sluggish and clueless on the field. Poland came to life only in the second half, only to discover that desire is not enough and Morocco has well organized defence. Largely, Poland was lucky to escape a loss. Piechniczek only wondered after the game how it was possible to play at the World Cup finals without any mood to win, but he also sounded resigned. Faria was all smiles, pointing out to the journalists that his Morocco only follows in the steps of Tunisia'78 and Algeria'82 – African football was no joke and there was no gap between African teams and the leading football nations now. 
03.06.86 (16.00) Monterrey, Estadio Tecnologico

POR - ENG 1:0 (0:0)

(~23000) Roth GER, Dochev BUL, Al-Sharif SYR

POR: Bento (c) - Alvaro, Frederico, Oliveira, Inacio - Diamantino
(83 José Antonio), Jaime Pacheco, André, Sousa - Carlos Manuel, Gomes (73Futre)
ENG: Shilton - G.M.Stevens, Fenwick, Butcher, Sansom - Hoddle, Robson (c - 60 Hodge), Wilkins, Waddle (80 Beardsley) - Hateley, Lineker

1:0 Carlos Manuel 75

booked: Jaime Pacheco / Fenwick, Butcher

It was expected to be interesting clash, but England was also expected to win – there was plenty of praise of Bobby Robson's team before the finals. A major favourite. Portugal was greatly promising team in 1984, but that was 2 years ago and meantime did not look like the Portuguese moved up. And the beginning of the match was true to expectations... England went into relentless attacks, Portugal hardly stepped in the English half of the field. With time, also became clear that England was not new, but old: speedy, hungry, dedicated to attack, but the same predictable straight-forward football they played for ages, lacking imagination, improvisation and surprise. England looked dangerous, but Portugal had no big difficulty defending, patiently waiting for their own chance. Bento was the hero, saving fantastic balls, England had no luck – and no luck, for there was no enough skill, and the minutes passed one after another. Then Portugal dropped the bomb – Futre replaced Gomes, somewhat late in the game, but what a surprise to the English players the youngster was... unpleasant surprise. Suddenly Portugal was incredibly dangerous, the English was too slow for Futre, and as soon as their efforts were concentrated on stopping him, other dangers loomed, ending with a goal in the net Shilton. And there was no answer to it, although there was still plenty of time. Surprise, surprise, England lost. Robson blamed the loss on rotten luck: one mistake and the opponents scored... dominating performance, so many scoring opportunities and nothing... rotten luck. Torres recalled the past – in 1966 the team he played in lost to England and now he was happy to take revenge. He had worries, though, still unvoiced – the 37-years old Bento, who played fantastic match, injured himself in a clash with Lineker. Most likely to be out for the rest of the championship... which was too bad, for not only the captain was in wonderful form, but he also inspired by example. 

06.06.86 (16.00) Monterrey, Estadio Tecnologico

ENG - MAR 0:0

(+20000) González PAR, Kirschen DDR, Espsito ARG

ENG: Shilton - G.M.Stevens, Fenwick, Butcher, Sansom - Hoddle, Robson (c - 42 Hodge), Wilkins - Waddle, Hateley (76 G.A.Stevens), Lineker
MAR: Zaki (c) - Khalifi, El Biaz, Bouyahyaoui, Lemriss (74 Ouadani) – Dolmy, Timoumi, Khairi, M.Merry (88 Souleymani) - Bouderbala, Krimau

booked: Wilkins, Hateley / Khalifi, Khairi
sent off: Wilkins (42)

England had to win this match, no other way. Robson apparently tried to change the approach – expecting defensive play from the Moroccans, the ball was kept in midfield, controlled by the English in hope that the Moroccans will be lured to move a bit forward and thus open some space. But Faria's boys did not not... they were disciplined squad, knowing what to do. England was confronted by tied, well organized defensive team, which had skillful players able to organize deadly fast counterattacks. Because of the sheep brutality displayed in Group E, little attention was paid to what was going on the pitch in other groups – chopping and hacking was plentiful here too, the 'fair' English already collected 2 yellow cards in the first match, now, perhaps bitter that once again they could not prevail, nerves showed again, culminating with the expulsion of Ray Wilkins in the 42nd minute. The second half Morocco had one man advantage and life was easier for them: they attacked rarely and Shilton had nothing to do practically the whole game, but look at the other side: England attacked constantly and Zaki, the Moroccon goalkeeper, had nothing to do as well – English strikers were blocked early, there was dominance, but no opportunities for kicking the ball toward Zaki's net. Hollow dominance and 0-0 at the final whistle. Robson confessed that he did not expect such organized play from Morocco. If he really did not study Morocco... how was one of the hottest coaches in the world at the moment? Most likely Robson chose to take the blame on himself, hiding much bitterer truth: he had no other options, especially in midfield, and could not change anything – Bryan Robson, Hoddle, Waddle were good, but hardly on the same level with the world class midfielders. And they had problems with injuries on top of it. Ray Wilkins perhaps was a mistake as an idea – moved back as defensive midfielder, the veteran was a player of the old British school, dragging unwittingly his teammates into the kind of football which did not work for years. Hateley was similar – a classic English center-forward – so the game quickly deteriorated into the old ineffective kick and run approach with crosses aimed at the center-forward. Lineker's mobility and surprise was lost in such football, so well known and predicatble by now, that Morocco had no trouble blocking all English efforts. Faria even did not have to say much after the game, not even boast. 

07.06.86 (16.00) Monterrey, Estadio Universitario

POL - POR 1:0 (0:0)

(-20000)

POL: Młynarczyk - Pawlak, Wójcicki, Majewski, Ostrowski – Matysik, Komornicki (57 Karaś), Boniek (c) - Smolarek (75 Zgutczyński), Dziekanowski, Urban
POR: Damas - Alvaro, Frederico, Oliveira, Inacio - Diamantino, Jaime Pacheco, André (73 J.Magalhaes), Sousa - Carlos Manuel, Gomes (c - 46 Futre)

1:0 Smolarek 64

booked: Wójcicki, Dziekanowski

Third match – third surprise! Portugal was seen as the favourite here, but Bento broke his leg in training – very likely the bruises collected against England helped – and that required some changes. Since Portugal needed only a point to reach the next round, the change was relative – increasing the defensive approach, taking special care to kill attacks early, for Damas, 38-years old, had enourmous experience, but played little for the national team and he was no Bento. And worries about Damas were well justified... once he made mistake and the game was to lost. Poland played nothing again, the combination Boniek-Smolarek did not work as it used to, although skill and experience helped when mattered: Smolarek did not miss the chance and scored the only goal in the match. There was nothing good to say about the quality of football played, but the Polish win elevated this group as the most intriguing one: before the last round no team qualified yet, everyone had a chance to go ahead – or to be eliminated. This situation also brought hopes that now, when it was all or nothing, the teams will play some interesting football at last. 

11.06.86 (16.00) Monterrey, Estadio Universitario

ENG - POL 3:0 (3:0)

(-23000) Daina SUI, Christov CZE, Brummeier AUT

ENG: Shilton (c) - G.M.Stevens, Fenwick, Butcher, Sansom - Hoddle, Steven, Hodge, Reid - Beardsley (76 Waddle), Lineker (86 Dixon)
POL: Młynarczyk - Pawlak, Wójcicki, Majewski, Ostrowski - Matysik (46 Buncol), Komornicki (24 Karaś), Boniek, Smolarek - Dziekanowski, Urban

1:0 Lineker 8, 2:0 Lineker 14, 3:0 Lineker 36

booked: Fenwick

What to do? Piechniczek did nothing. Boniek-Smolarek. There was nobody else anyway, certainly nobody promising at the moment. Robson, however, changed four players, a radical rework of the midfield – Wilkins was suspended, Robson and Hateley so far disappointed. The changes worked, though – England was immediately different, Lineker got better feed and support and suddenly he became exactly what he should have been from start: the prime striker. Poland had no answer – the most coach and team could do was having a big 'manly' discussion after the match with Portugal. Since Poland could not change anything else, all came to familiar pep-talk 'to show character'. It worked somewhat – Poland came to life and with that, to peril. Lineker scored 3 goals in the first half and character or no character, the campaign was over. Poland tried to score, but Shilton prevented all efforts to change the result. Robson was relieved at the end, Piechniczek... just as well, for there was radio and the other group match ended at the same time: Poland was not going home yet. 
11.06.86 (16.00) Monterrey, Estadio Tecnologico

MAR - POR 3:1 (2:0)

(-24000) Snoddy NIR, Roth GER, Butenko ZSR

MAR: Zaki (c) - Khalifi, El Biaz, Bouyahyaoui, Lemriss (69 Amanallah) – Dolmy, El Haddaoui (71 Souleymani), Timoumi, Khairi - Bouderbala, Krimau
POR: Damas - Alvaro (55 Rui Aguas), Frederico, Oliveira, Inacio – Pacheco, J.Magalhaes, Sousa (69 Diamantino), Carlos Manuel - Gomes (c), Futre

1:0 Khairi 19, 2:0 Khairi 28, 3:0 Krimau 62, 3:1 Diamantino 90

booked: Gomes

All or nothing for both teams, but it was expected that Portugal will prevail – Morocco may crumble under pressure, so was the wisdom. A tie would have been a nightmare, though – both teams would be not only with the same points, but with exactly the same goal-difference. It would have been even worse if England-Poland also ended in a tie. Calculations slightly favoured Portugal if the match was tied. Morocco's calculations were different: Polish loss was bad for them, a tie was not going to work in their favour. May be. It was so complicated, that the development of this match required constant listening to what was going on in the other group match and re-adjustments during the game, a very difficult task, if possible at all. Thus, Morocco seemingly placed their bets on Portuguese cautious defensive approach and chose to attack. It worked and they scored. England scored as well, so now it was different game – Portugal needed to attack, Morocco was prepared to use fully the moment and soon managed to score a second goal – good shots both times, but Damas was no Bento for sure: no heroics from him. The second half was a matter of maturity: Portugal was unable to convert its play into more dangerous attacking approach and Morocco defended itself well, helped by its own lead and the known result in the other game. Only after scoring their third goal the Africans lowered their guard and Portugal managed to scored one goal. After the match Faria was pleased to recall how the same journalists sarcastically laughed at his words in the previous press-conferences: well, they laughed, but he was right! Who was going to laugh now? Everything happened exactly as he said it will before the games started: the European teams would fight each other to no clear success of any and Morocco had a good chance to go ahead when nobody was looking. Look at the final table, if you please. As for the future – Faria would not dare speculate, he was happy that his team achieved undeniable success already. 
1. MAR^ 3 1 2 0 4 3-1
2. ENG^ 3 1 1 1 3 3-1
3. POL^ 3 1 1 1 3 1-3
4. POR 3 1 0 2 2 2-4

Portugal was going home. Perhaps rightly so, although it was chancy elimination in this group. There were few things working against this team: one, Portugal did not developed further after 1984 – rather, stepped down a bit. Second, the team lost two very important players – first Chalana, quite a long time before the World Cup and Bento after the first group game. Both were practically irreplaceable and their absence affected negatively the team's play. And Gomes was getting old by now and perhaps not the same deadly striker anymore, especially when there were limited opportunities. Third, Paulo Futre was still very young, a promising, but not yet a key player with central role. Without Chalana and with Futre not yet at his prime, Portugal had no real creative playmaker to make difference on the pitch. Forth, too much calculating – Portugal seemingly played with caution, aiming at securing a point and if some chance came up – only then may be a win. But such approach made it very difficult to switch into openly attacking football when the result was negative. Too much caution made them lose at the end and not only that, but Portugal hardly left memorable moments of its performance.