All Time World Cup!
Lineker 54, Hagi 70, Gascoigne 77
RIO - Maracana
England picked up where they had left off in their previous game –huffing, puffing, but creating little. Romania have recently become something of a bogey team for England. Since a one – nil win at the 1970 World Cup, England have managed four draws and no wins in seven games against the Romania ‘Tricolorii’.
Ramsey had dropped Billy Wright in favour of Des Walker, who in the late 1980s to the early ‘90s looked to be one of the best centre backs in the world, with his well-timed tackles and phenomenal pace, which made up for his good but not great positional sense.
Walker looked to be a perfect foil for the slower Bobby Moore, although Wright’s aerial prowess would be missed. Walker was called on after twenty minutes to chase down Lăcăctuş after he had been played through by Bölöni. Lăcăctuş was quick, but Walker was quicker, and nipped the ball from the attacker’s toe as he prepared to shoot.
At the other end, Dinu and Rednic man-marked Greaves and Dean, while the ever-alert Belodedici swept up behind them. Just before half time Bryan Robson picked up a knock after hurling himself in to one too many lost-cause challenges, and five minutes after half time he had to be replaced.
Haynes moved into the middle, with Matthews brought on out wide. At the same time, Gary Lineker replaced Jimmy Greaves as Dixie Dean’s partner. The double substitution brought almost instant dividends. Matthews took a long cross field pass from Stuart Pearce, who had replaced Cohen due to his greater attacking threat.
The ‘Wizard Of Dribble’ skipped past Daniel Prodan’s challenge and whipped in a low cross. Lineker reacted fastest and eluded Rednic to score at the near post with an outstretched boot.
England looked confident and began to pass the ball around with far greater composure. Romania knew defeat meant almost certain elimination and roused themselves for another push. With twenty minutes to go Gheorghe Popescu carried the ball through midfield and exchanged passes with Iordanescu before being muscled over by Duncan Edwards outside the ‘D’.
The Manchester United man felt it was a soft foul, but the damage was done. There was no doubt about who would take the kick; only about whether Banks or his wall could do anything to stop it. The answer was no, as Hagi stepped up and flashed a powerful, swerving shot over the ball and down, in off the post.
England needed a moment of inspiration and Ramsey gambled on a player whose off the field antics made him the sort of man he would much rather have not needed. Paul Gascoigne was literally jumping with excitement as he came on to replaced Haynes.
Five minutes later, he narrowly avoided getting in to serious trouble with an over-ambitious and over-enthusiastic tackle which Dumitrescu did well to hurdle. If contact had been made, who knows...? As it happened, Dumitrecsu escaped unscathed, but was now off balance and lost the ball to Edwards.
Gazza was now back on his feet and Edwards found him. He let the pass run across his body which out-foxed Munteanu and created a gap in midfield. The England man surged into it and bore down on the Romanian penalty area. Prodan, Rednic and DInu came to meet him but a combination of quick feet and tremendous upper-body strength saw him shrug off their challenges.
Belodedici had to abandon Lineker to come across and cover the danger but before he could get there Gascoigne played the ball mid-stride, catching keeper Ducadam flat-footed and helpless.
A goal worthy of winning any match, and it deflated most of the Romanians. Hagi berated his defenders and tried to lift his team back into the match, but ran out of time. Their chances of going through, even as a best third-placed team, now required an unlikely series of results to go their way in other groups as well as their own.
Ramsey had a reputation in his career for never quite getting the hang of making effective substitutions to change the flow of a game. Here, though, he had got lucky with all three of his changes reaping quick dividends. England had got out of jail and with four points, looked a good bet to reach the next round.
A final match with old rivals Poland would decide who finished top of the group and avoided the big guns in the next round.
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