1990: Milla raises the gloom

1990: Milla raises the gloom
The 14th FIFA World Cup finals in Italy were a big disappointment. The quality of football was - with few exceptions - low and the brutal side of the game was never far away. In an attempt to restore order FIFA instructed referees to get tough but unlike in 1970, when a similar appeal was followed by one of the fairest tournaments, this appeal led to 16 sendings off and 164 bookings.

Unacceptable behaviour
Unacceptable behaviour had already seen both Mexico and Chile thrown out by FIFA. Mexico were banned for fielding over-age players in the FIFA World Youth Cup and Chile for a disgraceful attempt to get Brazil disqualified when their goalkeeper, Roberto Rojas, faked serious injury and was subsequently banned for life.

Tournament newcomers
The tournament saw Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates make their debuts in a competition missing France, Denmark and Poland who all failed to qualify.

Cameroon arrive
The mood was set in the opening match when the holders, Argentina, suffered a 1-0 defeat against Cameroon. Diego Maradona was singled out for rough treatment from the Africans, who mixed naïve and cynical defending with fluid attack. Indeed, they were already down to ten men before Francois Oman Biyik's 65th-minute goal but managed to hang on despite having a second player sent off.

West German power
As in 1986 the group stage saw only eight teams knocked out and apart from West Germany - impressive against Yugoslavia (4-1) and the UAE (5-1) and in a 1-1 draw against Colombia - there was little to raise the pulse. Even Brazil took the boring route.

Gascoigne in form
Scotland contrived to lose to Costa Rica, Egypt held a Netherlands side featuring Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten while Italy struggled to beat the United States but the highlights, such as they were, came in Paul Gascoigne's performance in England's goalless draw with the Netherlands and Belgium's 3-1 win against Uruguay in an excellent match.

Skuhravý hat-trick
The real action started in the second round. West Germany showed why they were favourites in an impressive but ill-tempered 2-1 win against the Netherlands in which both Rudi Völler and Frank Rijkaard were sent off while Italy, having discovered another goal poacher in Salvatore Schillaci, saw off Uruguay 2-0. Czechoslovakia won 4-1 against Costa Rica with Tomáš Skuhravý scoring a hat-trick while two goals from Yugoslavia's Dragan Stojkovic put out Spain after extra time.

Milla miracle
Elsewhere, two goals in extra time from the 38-year-old Roger Milla saw Colombia bundled out by Cameroon while David Platt's goal in the 119th-minute allowed England to scrape past Belgium. Brazil, who completely dominated their match against Argentina - with Dunga, Alemão and Müller all hitting the post  - went out following a rare piece of magic from Maradona, who brilliantly set up Caniggia for an undeserved late winner.

Bruising quarter-final
Sadly, that was about the last piece of inspiration Argentina displayed. Their bruising quarter-final against Yugoslavia ended goalless and, although Maradona missed in the penalty shoot-out, Argentina went through to face the hosts, Italy, in the semi-finals.

Dogged effort
The Italians, who overcame a dogged effort to beat the Irish 1-0 in their quarter-final, scored first through Schillaci but Caniggia equalised in the 67th minute. Again it went to penalties. Maradona scored this time and Argentina had reached the final after winning just two games and scoring only five goals.

England survive
The second semi-final paired West Germany, who dominated their 1-0 win over Czechoslovakia, and England, who beat Cameroon 3-2 in the most exciting of the last-eight encounters. Ahead against the run of play England were rocked when, in a sensational five-minute period midway through the second-half, a Milla-inspired Cameroon scored twice. Then - resembling Brazil at their best - they threatened to overrun England until, with just seven minutes to go, Gary Lineker scored a penalty, a feat he repeated in added time to take England through.

Penalty shoot-out
The semi-final with West Germany was the tournament's best game. England, again inspired by Gascoigne, had the edge and were unlucky when Andreas Brehme's free-kick was deflected home after 59 minutes. Lineker, though, grabbed an equaliser ten minutes from time. Extra time could not separate them, although both Chris Waddle and Guido Buchwald hit the woodwork, and a second semi-final had to be decided on penalties, the West Germans prevailing after both Stuart Pearce and Waddle missed.

Disappointing final
The final, in Rome's Olimpico stadium on 8 July featured West Germany, in their fourth final in five World Cups, against Argentina in their third in four - a repeat of the 1986 final. Whoever won would claim their third World Cup. It should have been a classic but it was, by a long way, the worst final so far.

Unhappy first
Argentina, at times brutal, at times petulant, seemed to be playing for another win on penalties and try as they might the Germans could not break them down. Pierre Littbarksi, Thomas Berthold and Völler all squandered chances for the Germans before Argentina's Pedro Monzon became the first man to be sent off in a World Cup final when he upended Jürgen Klinsmann.

Decisive penalty
Finally the deadlock was broken six minutes from time when the Germans won a dubious penalty, which Brehme calmly converted. Belatedly the Argentinians woke up but succeeded only in having Gustavo Dezotti also sent off for attacking Jürgen Kohler. When the final whistle went the general feeling - apart from among the jubilant West Germans - was gratitude that the game had not gone into extra time.