Football World Cup 1990 / Ireland

This article covers the Irish national football team at the 1990 World Cup .

qualification

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Spain	20: 3	13
2	Ireland	10: 2	12
3	Hungary	8:12	8th
4th	Northern Ireland	6:12	5
5	Malta	3:18	2

Northern Ireland	-	Ireland	0-0
Spain	-	Ireland	2-0
Hungary	-	Ireland	0-0
Ireland	-	Spain	1-0
Ireland	-	Malta	2-0
Ireland	-	Hungary	2-0
Ireland	-	Northern Ireland	3-0
Malta	-	Ireland	0: 2

Irish contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Pat Bonner	Celtic Glasgow	May 24, 1960	5	0	0	0
22nd	Gerry Peyton	Bournemouth AFC	05/20/1956	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Chris Morris	Celtic Glasgow	December 24, 1963	5	0	1	0
3	Steve Staunton	Liverpool FC	01/19/1969	5	0	0	0
4th	Mick McCarthy	Luton Town	02/07/1959	5	0	0	0
5	Kevin Moran	Manchester United	04/29/1956	5	0	1	0
7th	Paul McGrath	Aston Villa	December 4th, 1959	5	0	1	0
12	David O'Leary	Arsenal FC	05/02/1958	1	0	0	0
14th	Chris Hughton	Tottenham Hotspur	December 11, 1958	0	0	0	0
20th	John Byrne	Le Havre AC	02/01/1961	0	0	0	0
midfield player
6th	Ronnie Whelan	Liverpool FC	09/25/1961	1	0	0	0
8th	Ray Houghton	Liverpool FC	01/09/1962	5	0	0	0
11	Kevin Sheedy	Everton FC	10/21/1959	5	1	0	0
13	Andy Townsend	Norwich City	07/23/1963	5	0	0	0
16	John Sheridan	Sheffield Wednesday	10/01/1964	1	0	0	0
21st	Alan McLoughlin	Swindon Town	04/20/1967	2	0	0	0
striker
9	John Aldridge	Real Sociedad	09/18/1958	5	0	1	0
10	Tony Cascarino	Aston Villa	09/01/1962	5	0	0	0
15th	Bernie Slaven	Middlesbrough FC	11/13/1960	0	0	0	0
17th	Niall Quinn	Manchester City	06.10.1966	4th	1	0	0
18th	Frank Stapleton	Blackburn Rovers	07/10/1956	0	0	0	0
19th	David Kelly	Leicester City	11/25/1965	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Jack Charlton		05/08/1935

Irish team games

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	England	2: 1	4th
2	Ireland	2: 2	3
3	Netherlands	2: 2	3
4th	Egypt	1: 2	2

• England - Ireland 1: 1 (1: 0)

Stadium: Stadio Sant'Elia ( Cagliari )

Spectators: 35,238

Referee: Schmidhuber ( Germany )

Goals: 1-0 Lineker (8th), 1: 1 Sheedy (73rd)

• Ireland - Egypt 0: 0 (0: 0)

Stadium: Stadio La Favorita ( Palermo )

Spectators: 33,288

Referee: Van Langenhove ( Belgium )

Goals: none

• Netherlands - Ireland 1: 1 (1: 0)

Stadium: Stadio La Favorita ( Palermo )

Spectators: 33,288

Referee: Vautrot ( France )

Goals: 1-0 Gullit (10th), 1: 1 Quinn (71st)

It was only in the last game in Group F that England secured group victory with a 1-0 win against the uncomfortable team from Egypt. All five previous matches ended in a draw and showed unappealing, sometimes even bad football. The officials thus narrowly escaped a novelty, because for the first time the lot would have to decide on the entry into the round of 16 if England and Egypt had also delivered a draw. But Ireland and the Netherlands slipped into the round of 16 despite their poor performance.

Round of 16

31,818

Stadio Luigi Ferraris ( Genoa )

Ireland

Romania

Ramiz Wright ( Brazil )

0: 0 a.d., 5: 4 a.d.

Penalty: Hagi hit Sheedy hit Lupu hit Houghton hit Rotariu hit Townsend hit Lupescu hit Cascarino hit Timofte kept O'Leary hit

Ireland and Romania relied on the motto “Safety first” and did not get a ball over the goal line in 120 minutes. The players only met on penalties, except for the Romanian Timofte, who failed to goalkeeper Bonner and thus heaved Ireland into the quarter-finals.

Quarter finals

73,303

Olympic Stadium Rome

Italy

Ireland

Silva Valente ( Portugal )

1: 0 (1: 0)

1-0 Schillaci (38th)

It was left to 'Toto' Schillaci to mark the winning goal for Italy against Ireland. The goal, which fell in the 38th minute, caused the Italians to switch back to total defense, which meant an insurmountable strategy for the Irish, although it didn't help that the entire attack was substituted in the second round. Italy remained without conceding a goal.