Italy vs England - Italia '90: 'Bobby asked Gazza to pick up Matthaus and Gazza went: who's he?'

It’s 25 years since England lost to West Germany in Italia ’90. Chris Waddle recalls the agony of a semi-final defeat in Turin

Chris Waddle sends his penalty over the bar in Turin (Getty)

A quarter of a century has passed but Chris Waddle remembers it like it was yesterday. It was the night of 4 July 1990, in Turin, the night Waddle’s wayward penalty-kick sealed England’s fate in their World Cup semi-final shoot-out against West Germany.

Looking back now he recalls: “I was going to put it to the goalie’s left and then when Stuart [Pearce] missed I just thought ‘Hit it’. I thought, ‘If I hit it hard enough, he’s not going to save it.’ Unfortunately it’s the old saying in football – I did catch it too well.” The ball flew over and England’s finest campaign on foreign soil was at an end.

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The indelible image of the night for 26.2 million spellbound viewers back home was of a tearful Paul Gascoigne after the extra-time booking which meant he would have missed the final had England progressed. “We all kept shouting, ‘Keep your head, we need you’,” Waddle, now 54, tells The Independent, yet it was tears all round by the end. “There were loads of tears. Everybody was crying because we’d been on a great journey and didn’t want it to end.”

It was a World Cup where England’s football suddenly blossomed. “We changed to three at the back against Belgium [in the last 16] and all of a sudden looked like a team,” he continues. “We were looking after the ball and creating chances by passing the ball through and slowing the game down when we needed to.” After “a bit of luck” against Cameroon, they delivered their “best performance” against the eventual winners at the Stadio Delle Alpi. “It was a great game to play in and could have gone either way,” Waddle adds. “We thought whoever won it would win the cup.”

In his autobiography, Gascoigne recalled playing tennis the night before with an American tourist. The Geordie man-child came of age as an international footballer in Italy – “Gascoigne has the world at his feet” was this newspaper’s back-page headline two days later – and Waddle remembers: “He was off the cuff. Before the semi, Bobby Robson said, ‘When you lose the ball, ideally you want Gazza to pick [Lothar] Matthäus up’ and Gazza went, ‘who’s he?’ I’d be sitting in my room watching a game and he’d come and in and say, ‘Oh not the football on again’.”

Waddle himself arrived in Turin with a new haircut, having had his famous mullet shorn. “The Sun offered us 10 grand and I gave it to Newcastle General Hospital cancer unit. I didn’t want to cut it because I was a bit superstitious.” Minus the mullet, his luck was out. In the first half, the then Marseille player had a brilliant 45-yard shot tipped on to the crossbar. The referee had already blown for a foul but there was no such consolation when he struck a post in extra time. “It goes across the goal and I am thinking it’s going into the bottom corner but it hits the post. Nine times out of 10, it would go in. It comes back out and David Platt and Gary Lineker are running in and miss it. That’s the luck you need.”

Paul Gascoigne endures a tearful farewell to Italia ’90 (Getty)

Instead, England – who had equalised Andreas Brehme’s deflected free-kick through Lineker in the 80th minute– suffered penalty heartache. Looking back, Waddle wishes manager Robson had replaced Peter Shilton with Dave Beasant for the shoot-out, as Louis van Gaal did with Tim Krul last summer. “I always think what a brave decision it would have been to bring Dave Beasant on. He was [considered] an expert at it. A lot of people thought that.”

The 40-year-old Shilton got nowhere near Germany’s kicks while Pearce, foiled by Bodo Illgner, and Waddle failed with theirs. “I am glad two of us missed because I would have hated for it to just be on my shoulders or Stuart’s shoulders,” he continues. “Matthäus said to me afterwards, ‘You played well, it’s a horrible way to lose’.”

England returned to the Stadio Delle Alpi – since demolished and replaced by the Juventus Stadium – in 2000 for a 1-0 friendly loss that brought David Beckham’s first game as captain. But to any England fan of a certain vintage, Turin will forever be synonymous with Italia ’90 and the national team’s finest campaign on the world stage since 1966. “It is a lot harder outside your country,” Waddle notes. “People might say we didn’t win it but we got to the semis on foreign soil and we’ll see if anybody beats that.”

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A superior Italy outfit were forced to penalties by Roy Hodgson’s resilient side in their Euro 2012 quarter-final, but England suffered familiar woe, losing their sixth shoot-out from seven attempts.

Italy 1-0 England, Turin, 2000

Peter Taylor’s only game as England caretaker manager saw him hand David Beckham the captaincy for first time. Friendly settled by Gennaro Gattuso’s long-range strike.

England 2-0 Italy, Nantes, 1997

England’s first win over Italy in 20 years came in Le Tournoi, a World Cup build-up tournament. Paul Scholes set up the opening goal, delivering an inch-perfect through-ball for Ian Wright to drill home. Glenn Hoddle’s side doubled their lead just before half-time, with Wright this time assisting Scholes.