Remembering England's 1993 World Cup Qualifier with San Marino

While England’s win over Switzerland in their Euro 2016 qualifier last month was welcomed, the national team remains in the grip of a deep malaise at the moment. 

This summer Roy Hodgson’s side travelled to the World Cup in Brazil with the lowest expectations in living memory for any England squad and still managed not to reach them.

England made a humiliating early exit from Brazil after finishing bottom of their group and failed to win a single game against Italy, Uruguay or Costa Rica.

However, this relative slump was far preferable to the even worse predicament England found themselves in 21 years ago.

In November 1993, and on the brink of failing to qualify for the World Cup, England suffered the indignity of falling behind to San Marino in their crucial final qualifier.

Trailing to the tiny nation with a population of just 30,000 remains one of the most embarrassing moments in England’s 142 years of competing in international football.

Only a year after the launch of the Premier League, England boasted a squad brimming with world-class talent including David Seaman, Stuart Pearce, Paul Ince, Tony Adams, David Platt, Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne.

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After reaching the semi-finals, and only going out on penalties to West Germany, at the previous World Cup in Italy three years earlier, England should have been one of the favourites for the 1994 tournament in the USA.

And yet under the stewardship of Graham Taylor, England endured a wretched qualifying campaign and failed to beat either of their two major rivals in their group.

England drew at Wembley with both Norway and the Netherlands before suffering 2-0 defeats to both of them away from home.

It meant that approaching the final round of qualifying games, England needed to beat San Marino by seven clear goals and hope Poland would also beat the Netherlands.

England were naturally confident of scoring these seven goals against San Marino, who had already conceded 39 goals in their first nine qualifying games.

But after only eight seconds of the game at the Stadio Renato Dall’ Ara in Bologna, disaster struck when San Marino took the lead.

San Marino kicked off and charged forward, but it was an under-hit back pass from Pearce in the penalty area that allowed Davide Gualtieri to steal in and poke the ball past the advancing Seaman.

On the sidelines the England manager was mortified and has recalled his emotions with the BBC:

"

When the ball went into the net, I looked up towards the sky and just said quietly to myself 'God, please tell me what I have done wrong'. I can laugh about it now because that is a true story. Normally I would accept responsibility for every result, and every goal but, I mean, we were eight seconds into the game. I knew we would go on and win but you think to yourself 'what the hell is happening here?'

"

The goalscorer Gualtieri, also via the BBC, recalls the moment rather differently, as for him it remains the greatest of his sporting life:

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I will never forget that moment. I had dreamt about it but I never thought it would happen. It was so hard for us to score against anybody, let alone a team as big as England.

"

For an uncomfortable 21 minutes, San Marino would hold this lead until Ince equalised, and England would go on to score another six goals through Ince again, Les Ferdinand and Ian Wright, who claimed four to record a 7-1 win.

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But it was all in vain because, at the same time, the Netherlands were beating Poland 3-1 in Poznan to clinch the second automatic qualifying spot to proceed to the World Cup with group winners Norway.

England, semi-finalists in 1990, had failed to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1978.

It is a stigma and source of regret that Taylor still carries with him to this day, as he told The Daily Telegraph last year:

"

When you’re committed and fail, the pain doesn’t go away. Twenty years on and we’re still talking about it. People say I’m silly, but the truth is I’ll take this to the grave with me: I am the England manager who failed to qualify for the World Cup.

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A week later Taylor would step down as England manager and eventually be succeeded by Terry Venables, who would lead England to the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championships.

The current England manager Roy Hodgson will be hoping for a less traumatic experience when his side faces San Marino in their Euro 2016 qualifier at Wembley this Thursday.