This is the almost empty stadium in Bologna where only 2,378 turned up to watch a World Cup Qualifier on November 17th 1993 and most of those were English.
Previously in the first World Cup qualifier between the two nations on February 17th 1993 at Wembley, England won 6-0 with over 51,000 in the crowd. San Marino conceded 39 goals in 9 qualifying games.
The Three Lions, managed by Graham Taylor, played their way through qualification against Norway, Holland, Poland and Turkey. Draws against Holland and Poland and an away defeat in Norway (0-2) made Taylor's job difficult.
As a warm up to the last three qualifiers in June 1993, in a friendly tournament in Boston, England lost to the USA 2-0, drew with Brazil and lost to Germany. This match was played indoors on natural grass at the Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit in front of 62,000+. Was it good enough?
In Bologna, England needed to be 7 clear goals ahead of San Marino and the Dutch had to drop a point in Poland. Lady luck?
Ian Wright, a prolific goalscorer for Arsenal and all, had an international career of 7 years, won 33 caps with 16 starts but only scored 9 goals; four of those came against San Marino in this fated tie. Although Wright did his bit, England failed on the night and never made the USA World Cup in 1994.
The game started miraculously when AFTER 9 SECONDS, Stuart Pearce under hit a back pass to keeper David Seaman and Davide Gualtieri nipped in to put England 0-1 down! I remember it well.
It took 22 minutes for the English to reply through Paul Ince and then SM's gates opened with Wright, Ferdinand, Wright, Ince and Wright notching two more, with the seven goal going in after 90 minutes! Not enough however.
England Team: Seaman, Dixon, Pallister, Walker, Pearce, Sinton, Platt, Ince, Ripley.
(The "away" team included Woods, Dixon, Walker, Barnes, Adams, Platt, Palmer, Dorigo, Batty, Gascoigne, Ferdinand.)
A week later manager Taylor retired. Do I not like that.
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