The image above is etched into every Irish football fan's mind. With the penalties level at 4-4 between Ireland and Romania, Packie Bonner went to his right and saved Daniel Timofte's weak effort. O'Leary stepped up and Ireland were there.
Italia 90 is a tournament equally important in footballing stakes to both England and Ireland. The former went to the semis under Bobby Robson, and the latter shook world football by making the quarterfinals in their first ever appearance.
Jackie Charlton's side came into the qualifiers with an extremely difficult task to qualify, drawn with Spain, Hungary, and Northern Ireland.
Points were earned at Windsor Park and in Hungary by two 0-0 draws before a devastating 2-0 defeat to Spain in Seville.
Ireland moved into control with a famous 1-0 victory over the Spanish at Lansdowne, with the goal scored by Stapelton. Further, 2-0 wins over Malta and Hungary put them just two wins from Italy.
- B/R Ticket Guide
A narrow 1-0 win over Malta was followed by a passionate victory over our rivals Northern Ireland at Lansdowne. That meant we went to the World Cup for the first time ever!
England, Egypt, and Holland were the opponents drawn to face Ray Houghton and Co.
Sardinia was to be the venue of Ireland's first match against England, a revenge outing for the English after our sensational 1-0 win in 1988. Lineker put the enemy 1-0 up before Kevin Sheedy struck a low and true shot into the bottom right corner. 1-1.
By this stage, "Give It A Lash Jack" and "We're All Part Of Jackie's Army" were in full flow as the Irish invaded Sicily for the Egypt and Holland matches.
A boring 0-0 draw with Egypt drew criticism from Eamon Dunphy, and Charlton refused to talk to the controversial journalist.
Trailing by a goal to Holland with only minutes to go, a long ball was deflected to Niall Quinn, who nailed in the rebound to send us to the last 16. There we'd play Romania.
We laid siege to the Romanian goal, but after 120 minutes of failed efforts we went to a penalty shoot out. Four straight successful kicks later and Timofte stepped up. Bonner went to his right to hand match-point to David O'Leary.
The Arsenal man stepped up and slotted the ball past the Romanian keeper, and the lasting image is of the entire Irish squad mobbing O'Leary. We were going to the quarterfinals against none else but the hosts Italy.
The side received a blessing from John Paul II, but it wasn't enough as Schillaci notched a goal from Bonner's parry and Ireland couldn't force that equaliser. There was serious regret as we could have gone all the way that year.
However, the country celebrated long and hard, and the legend of Italia 90 lives on in Irish folklore.
comments (3) write a comment »
write a new comment
5 months ago
Nice article. Was thinking about these times while watching Euro 2008. I wonder will we ever see such talent in the Irish squad again?
We had some of the worlds greatest talents at that time, all playing for massive clubs. Its sort of disheartening when you then look at our current squad.
from 5 months ago
Back then the names at Top clubs rolled of the tongue, Houghton, McGrath etc but now the only Irish players at top clubs are O'Shea and Finnan. The former is crap and the latter doesn't play! The best you can look for is McGeady at Celtic winning personal honours and Given at Newcastle.
5 months ago
i have this on video. my mum is irish, and said u must support ireland. so i do. i loved the site of the ireland team celebrating. of all the people to take the pen, david o'leary. amazing.
ireland could have won it that year. they really could.
write a new comment