All Time World Cup!
Lineker 10, Boniek 56, Greaves 80
MEXICO CITY - Azteca
Several times these two sides have met with tournament progress at stake. This time both sides were in a strong position to qualify, but knew defeat would mean only qualifying as a best third-placed team, and then facing a tough game against Argentina in the next round.
Ramsey perhaps surprisingly dropped Gascoigne back to the bench, but kept Stanley Matthews in for Haynes, with Tom Finney now on the left, allowing Bobby Charlton to move inside and replace the injured Robson.
After his vital goal versus Romania, Ramsey gave Lineker the start, but probably would have done so anyway, given Lineker’s fine record against the Poles. A vital equaliser in Poznan took England to Euro ’92. More famously, his hat-trick in the final ’86 World Cup group game rescued England after two disastrous results, and set Lineker on the way to the Golden Boot.
Prior to that though, Poland had ended Ramsey’s reign as England manager with an infamous 1973 draw at Wembley to reach the 1974 World Cup at their hosts’ expense. On that occasion Jan Tomaszewski kept England at bay with a string of fine saves, but today he hardly covered himself in glory as England went ahead on ten minutes.
Charlton smashed in a cross-shot from the left. Tomaszewski opted to push it away rather than try to catch it, but didn’t get the right contact and succeeded only in the palming the ball straight to that man Lineker, who gleefully swept it home.
Ramsey showed not a flicker, but the rest of England breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Now England’s tails were up. They relentlessly chased and harried the Poles, driving them back and forcing centre backs Zmuda and Gorgon to show their quality.
Tomaszewski went some way towards redeeming himself with an acrobatic save as Dixie Dean met a Matthews cross. England were playing good football and Poland were hanging on. Lineker was inches away from a second when he stretched for an Edwards shot that had rebounded off the post. Poland were relieved when the half time whistle sounded.
Poland emerged for the second half looking more determined, and better organised. They spent several minutes just cautiously passing the ball amongst themselves, more concerned with keeping it away from England than on creating anything going forward.
England fell for it and lost concentration for a moment. While Poland’s defenders and defensive midfielders had been playing keep-ball, forwards Lato and Lubanski had been gradually manoeuvring England’s defenders out of position.
With a sudden burst of acceleration Boniek burst forward into the gap that created, while at that same instant Deyna zipped the ball through the crowded midfield to him. Walker’s extraordinary pace was not enough to get across and cover before Boniek took a touch and coolly flicked the ball past Banks.
England were aghast. Their best performance so far looked like it would not yield the win. The men in white looked hungrier for victory, and pressed forward again. Poland seemed relatively unconcerned. They just wanted to maintain possession, let the ball do the work, and let the clock run down. They were confident now of progressing to the next round, and were smart enough to want to conserve energy in the heat and altitude of the Azteca stadium.
Ramsey on the other hand, wanted to win the group and so send a message out to the other tournament big guns. He pitched in Jimmy Greaves for the tiring Lineker with quarter of an hour to go. Greaves was Lineker’s equal as a poacher, but was far more likely to conjure a chance for himself without having to rely on service from others.
With ten minutes to go, Greaves justified Ramsey’s choice by doing just that. Receiving the ball from Matthews, he turned inside Gorgon and showed his dribbling skill to slalom between Wojcicki and Szymanowski. A drop of the shoulder sent the keeper the wrong way and Greavsie rolled the ball into the empty net.
Poland threw on former Celtic cult hero Dariusz Dziekanowski for a quick run out, but he was unable to fashion another equaliser. Poland were through, having looked threatening up front but a bit patchy elsewhere.
Lubanski, Lato, Boniek and Deyna all looked at home in this level of competition, but further back only Zmuda exuded elite class. The rest looked organised and very familiar with each others’ play, but how far would that take them in the knock out phase?
Ramsey would brook no talk of revenge for 1973, but privately would have taken enormous satisfaction from this result. England had done enough to get through, but had only intermittently shown the kind of quality that could worry the likes of Brazil and Italy. Ramsey would be hoping that the side was gathering momentum....
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