Malcolm Bailey's Football Blog: 06/06/86 and 96

Tuesday, 6 June 2023

06/06/86 and 96

June 6th 1986 was the date that for the first time, England played an African nation in the World Cup. England was drawn against Morocco in a group match at the 1986 Finals, hosted by Mexico. The match ended in a disappointing 0-0 draw, which was marked by the first sending off of an England player in a World Cup finals match, after Ray Wilkins threw the ball at Paraguayan referee, Gabriel Gonzalez, obviously frustrated by his decisions. England qualified from the group in second place with group winners. England finished runners up in their group, having lost to Portugal 0-1 in the opening match. A draw with Morocco 0-0 did not go down too well but a recovering victory over Portugal 3-0 with a hat trick from Lineker England finished second in their group after losing their opening game to Portugal 1-0, drawing with Morocco 0-0; England then won 3-0, beating Poland. with a hat trick from Lineker.

Morocco becoming the first African nation to qualify for the W.C. knock-out stages. AND IN......

At another level, on 6th June 1996
It is a little known fact but on this day, the Czech Republic started out on their successful Euro96 campaign with a friendly....against Bamber Bridge! Just before the Czechs played their first group match against Germany they played a warm-up friendly against the Northern Premier League side. A capacity 2400 crowd and international TV coverage was enjoyed although the result perhaps wasn't - Bamber Bridge lost 1-9. Three days later, the Czech Republic lost 2-0 to Germany at Old Trafford and that fixture was repeated on June 30th in the final at Wembley - which Germany again won, this time, 2-1.

The hosts, England, drew 1–1 with Switzerland in their opening group match and defeated rivals Scotland 2–0 in their next game. They then produced one of their finest performances ever with a 4–1 win over the Netherlands. I remember it well!! Patrick Kluivert's late goal for the Netherlands secured his team second place in the group and ensured that Scotland would exit another major competition on tie-breaking criteria.