England 2-0 Italy (1977) WCQ 

They had the same points as Italy at the top but scored one less goal, imagine Brazil and Argentina in a group and that happened??? Fifa are idiots

England missed out on goal difference in their qualifying group. They played Argentina at La Bombonera in 1977 in a game that ended 1-1. I think that will be the last time an England football team will take the field in your country for a very long time...

@@LouisL1963 It's true what you say! I would like to see an English team selected in Argentina, but it has become difficult because of the rivalry that some people in my country promote and that has to do with the events of the war in the South Atlantic. What a pity! Sport should not be mixed with political matters. Best regards!

Well - at that time there were only 16 teams allowed to qualify and European teams simply HAD to win their qualification group. As England also had not been able to qualify for 1974 World Cup (losing to a formidable Polish team) they probably were not drawn from pot 1. Also Belgium did not qualify - bad luck as they were in the same group as Holland with Cruyff. We Austrians were pretty lucky as we "only" had to deal with East Germany, Turkey and Malta. Obviously, both England and Belgium were stronger than our unforgettable Cordoba team.

@@clemensgruber7278 good post. It answers a question about the England team in the 70s which had always puzzled me

I was there too aged 14 🙂🙂

I remeber this match, watching it on tv in Italy that november evening. I was 10 years old too and very disappointed for the bad performance of Italy.

Yes Wembley at night walking to the stadium as a youngster gives me the goosies even now. That pitch on cup final day, even the goal nets seemed magicical. I miss the very different types of goal nets we use to see at the different stadiums. Rather than the generic ones we have now. Also the tall floodlights towering over football grounds was the most exciting experience walking up to the ground.

​@@marcogoeni6052 we qualified and England didn't. I was 12 at the time

We've had 45 years to get over it. Gentile is a legend.

Yes, they were indeed. I noticed that KK was floored again by an Italian defender as he slipped the ball to Brooking for the second goal

Yes, the Italians were terrified of Keegan and rightly so, but not enough terrified that they thought Keegan would score or make 3 goals in this game - if I remember correctly that was the only way England could qualify. Keegan was the top striker in Europe at the time and the English First Division was chockful of talented English footballers in the 1970s, but they respected his ability highly. If England had respected the Italy team and especially the player who was given the job of marking Keegan, Marco Tardelli, England wouldn't have lost so badly in Rome and later on in Turin three years later - when Keegan's marker, Tardelli, scored the goal that knocked England out, again.

I was at this match too. My old man was Italian and football crazy (he went to Rome to watch Italy v England the year before this game was played) but took me to see all the England home games during the late 70s and early 80's, Wembley was ALWAYS full: a WC qualifier with Luxembourg or a friendly with Greece would draw a full house. We would also go and watch lots of matches in London at Highbury, Stamford Bridge, White Hart Lane, Loftus Road, Selhust Park and even the Valley and Brisbane Road. English football was very strong at this time - the English clubs also had the pick of the best Scots, Welsh and Irish players and dominated European football - but it's a mystery how England failed to qualify for three big tournaments in succession; 1974, 1976 and 1978.

Glenn Hoddle, his competitor at late 70s and early 1980s.

To think Greenwood missed a chance to play Keegan/Brooking up front with Hoddle behind them for the 1982 World Cup..

@@lexsoft3969 Agreed! Glen Hoddle was an amazing player I'm a United fan and I used to go the lane sometimes just to watch him play

Beckham probably could.

@@r4h4al I'm sure he could but he wasn't around then. I was comparing him to his peers. He was outstanding.

ChitarraStelle Tardelli was hard as nails and often mean, too. One time he kicked the old Rivera up in the air right after kick-off. It would be a straight red today.

If you want proof, see how he defended against Maradona in the Argentina-Rest of the World match in 1979 ... in comparison Claudio Gentile was a gentleman. Tardelli stopped making terrible fouls when he was moved from defender to midfielder.

However, he was too important a player for the national team. For many years Bearzot entrusted him with the control of the most dangerous opponents (Platinì, Keagan and many others)

@Athelstan Edwardsson I don't think Italy has a history of being statistically more "dirty" than any other teams. I apologized for this match, end of story. I remember Zidane headbutting Materazzi in the 2006 WC final with Italy, I remember Schumacher hitting Battiston in 1982 WC semifinal with France and not even apologizing, I remember Italy losing to Uruguay in 2014 after Suarez took a bite out of Chiellini's shoulder and not even being redcarded, and denying any wrongdoing afterwards.

Here's the "treatment" Graziani received from McFarland, Clement & Greenhoff in the first leg. None of them were booked: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html

I think he was actually more of a striker but he did drift right side a lot for some reason.

That would have been difficult since we didn't qualify for those world cups.

I'm a United fan but I used to love Kevin Keegan him hoodie and brooking where really skillful English players

English FA was to blame why England didn't qualify. If they had picked Brian Clough as manager England would have qualified and won the World Cup. Look what Brian did with us Rams and our rivals Nottingham forest who were not huge clubs. If Brian had the nations talent to choose from back then they would have won the World Cup.

@@antoniosilvestro9045 He didn't do too well with Leeds' talent. Great man though.

I second that from the late 70s to 1990 England had both excellent players and squads. The loss of Keegan was massive in 82 because with the exception of Brazil, they were as good as team in that cup, Samson, Coppell, Francis, Keegan, Mariner, Robson, Wilkins, Brookings..

The sublime cross was from Sir Trev.

Me too, first live England game I watched on tv. Great performance. Shame both teams didn't qualify. I think England would have been a threat in 78.

First game I ever went to 7 years old at the time

@@johnt7630 Italy DID qualify for the 78 world cup

@@mazzgoldie9149 you've misunderstood my statement. It was clumsily put but I meant to say it's a shame that both teams couldn't have qualified. Respect. Have a good week.

@@johnt7630 no problem my friend, all the best

Platini said the English are "Lions in winter but Lambs in Spring" meaning the old English season was too long, hard and draining to give England teams a real chance of winning tournaments.

​that is still the case today.@@thewomble1509

Funny that, I remember watching that game and my Uncle making the same remarks about his generation whilst criticizing modern football at the time. 🤔

@@johnmcgahern3946 my dad was exactly the same. “Matthews, Mortenson, Finney and Lawton could give this shower a two goal start” he used to say

Its the same old story. The English don't like change. Our aviation authority dismissed the jet engine whilst Germany advanced And its the same with everything including football . Until the rigid principle of how we do things is torn up we will never move forward. We are 10 years behind

Have you heard of Jimmy Greaves? He is the greatest Eng goal scorer. 77% goal ratio. 44 goals in 57 games.

Until Southgate, who has proven better than most at tournament football.

big sam played one won one say no more @@ManchesterBlackSheep

Best player we have ever had (Bobby M and Bobby C just about notwithstanding).

England played very well, looking to recover some pride - but Italy were virtually assured of qualification when they came to Wembley

England beat every team in the world in the 70s unlike the shit today!!

but the first leg Italy beat England 2-0 so it's considered to be a 2-2 Draw A.G.G

Yes but Italians living in the UK

He had much more to his game than Linekar.

Keegan on UK and Antognoni on Italy , the players with most class

England clearly deserved to be in Argentina next year better than Hungary, Austria, Sweden and perhaps even Spain. But that silly FIFA system of seeding is so merciless at times..

@Antonio Sapienza all you noted is correct. I must say both Italy and England were lucky enough to get Finland as the third pot team. This could have easily been Yugoslavia, for instance. Of even Greece - both pretty decent sides at that times.

I remember watching this live on ITV I think we needed three goals? what a pity we didn't make it to Argentina I'm a United fan and I still rate Steve coppell as one of the best wingers we had at the club and I used to love Keegan when he played for England of course not for Liverpool lol, and brooking what amazing players.

Here's the "treatment" Graziani received from McFarland, Clement & Greenhoff in the first leg. None of them were booked: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html

Very, very good. I used to watch him every week.

Totally agree about 1990 - Bobby had tweaked England to play perfectly & even the Germans know they were fortunate at being the better penalty takers (ironic that they end up winning from a spot kick in the final). The Argentines just kept playing the negatives to take things to spot kicks, as they'd done in previous rounds. The 3rd place game between us & Italy would've been the right final, but just glad the Germans stopped Maradona & his cheating scumbags (the surrounding the ref alone from the penalty-I'd have dismissed all of those who'd done that to me as a match official). Really, the Yugolavs should've sent Dirty Diego & Co home by the quarters. But since when has a recent WC ended up with the good guys making the final? Uruguay behaved disgracefully against Ghana & "Gnasher" Suarez should never have played another match in the 2010 finals after his gamesmanship.

I think Bobby Robson took far too long to realise his team in 1986 not so in 1990..Argentina were the best in 1986..

Crap against ROI Fortunate against both Belgium and Cameroon. OK V Egypt but were the better side against both Germany and Holland

How can u span so much time in a few sentences....stupid!

@Roshan, that 2nd goal Lineker should have scored was actually a great save, off the back of the head, from the defender. Difficult to see in real time, but it wasn't a miss - just great defending.

It wouldn’t have been meaningless had we scored just two more goals

@@markbailey1970 yes

@@markbailey1970 not that England could

ha ha ..love it !

Nikula Pál Palotai was paid a lot of money by the Italians , nobody could be that bad.

crapy ref useless

I just asked myself the same question, Paul. How did the ref not see that one?

That would be A THREE MATCH BAN TODAY

Here's the "treatment" Graziani received from McFarland, Clement & Greenhoff in the first leg. None of them were booked: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html

Are you sure the video wasn't just mirrored?

Top class 80's football joke. Good ole "crab" Wilkins.

I bet that your defenders have never been more loyal, so it means that our defenders were better than yours, deal with it

@@piti2 hey italiano elbows are for martial arts kungfu not football

@Paris Stromatias, homeduty for you: read again what I've written and try to understand, instead of start with poor sarcasm. I remember that match, English defenders weren't so much more correct or clean than Italians. Everywhere, in these old times, defenders were absolutely rude. Dont' live in the illusion of an inexistent British sporting spirit. And, at the end of the qualification matches, we finish before England, and that's all. And, further, we arrive at semifinal in that world cup, and we won the next one. Please, remember what happened to Enlgish national team, 'cause -you know- so mach time has passed by...

@@piti2 when the English played inside the country shoulder to shoulder for them was a fair challenge for the ball they never dived and when was a foul was a foul not crying on the pitch all the other countries spoil them and you know all the Latin American countries where the dirty ones and Italy you know catennatsio

@@parisstromatias637 meanwhile you try to teach the right way to play football to Latin American countries and to Italy, Uruguay, Argentina and Italy have won 8 world cup. A bti of humility would be useful, I'm afraid, instead to put England on a bench to judge all the other countries. It's the only way to try to win something with your ridicolous national team. And the only one won by England, has been the one played in England. And the violence of English defenders was often incredible, even if you try to describe it as "shoulder to shoulder"...

Tardelli gets away with it, no card. 40 seconds later, he barges Keegan over in the box, gives him verbals for alleged diving, Keegan gets up and shoves him away and gets a yelloow card. Ref, what a caaahnt.

@@duffymoony 44 yrs on Chianelli and Ghorgino commit 2 sending off offences and get away with it.

Here's the "treatment" Graziani received from McFarland, Clement & Greenhoff in the first leg. None of them were booked: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yONUzFHoxTc.html

@@nicholasweaver7809 Chiellini's challenge *did not* rob Saka of a clear goalscoring opportunity. Was Jorginho's tackle on Grealish any different than *Phillips' tackle on Kroos?* How about *Sterling's blatant dive* to win a crucial penalty for England in the semi-final? *Italy had a far tougher route to the final than England* and deserved to win Euro 2020. Cheers!

@@AntonesPap Bollocks. Italians diving and rolling, mummy's boys caaahnts!

@John Clark, sadly we needed to win about 5-0. Great performance, but Italy already knew they'd done enough.

@@johnt7630If I remember correcly, Italy needed to beat Luxembourg 3-0, which they did. If England had scored three, Italy would have needed five.

In the days when England always seemed to be hanging on a thread . Relying on the last group game to qualify.

So I was right we did need three goals, I have never forgotten this game never!

Be happy "The Jayser", by San Marino. England never wins. 😂😂😂

The 82 England team were an outstanding squad and team, a shame Keegan was injured before the tournament..a real live wire..

It's not an injustice, if 4 of these 5 wins are against Finland and Luxembourg.

England played a very tight match against Italy in Euro 80 where Kennedy hit the post and Samson almost equalised at the death to a Tradelli strike?...English players under greenwood were wasted in the late 1970s and early 1980s..

losers, did not qualify for WC 94 neither

@@folladordeprostis But reached the semis this year and have one of the most promising young teams in Europe. Just saying.

the womble I know , after 28 years reached semi finals

He wasn’t the same player after leaving City ,just my opinion

@@angusbabb4913 That's a shame..Greenwood chose Rix over Tony Morley?...WTF as well..

He played a lot of qualifying games, but by 1980/82 he wasn't selected for EC and WC.

Massively underachieved at what? Maybe Euro 1980. But 4th place finish for a young Italy team was a good result in 1978, then they won it in 1982. As for England they were actually much better in the 1970s and 80s. But in those days it was also more difficult to qualify for tournaments. And once you reached a World Cup, you could not possibly reach the semis by beating Colombia and Sweden, you had to face the big guns... So very good England teams like 1982-90 are rated as underachieving while not so good ones are considered to have performed well.

Marco Tardelli set Kevin Keegan up with that elbow in the face. Later Keegan reacts & gets a booking against Tardelli. The Latin's were always on the clever side of things.

@@NoName-jq7tj And referees are still dopey gits at international level.

Just a thug ,he should have been sent off .

Should have been sent off .

He elbowed the English player , this is just thuggery ,not football . That is why it is called football ,and not street fighting .

you are wrong the matches consisted of 2 legs the first leg Italy defeated England 2-0 then the 2nd leg England defeated Italy 2-0 so technically it's considered to be a 2-2 Draw A.G.G so England to this day has still never defeated Italy in a major tournament and not even in a competitive match only in Friendlies England has defeated Italy

come to think of it, our record against top nations is terrible. i think Germany is the only top team we've knocked out of a tournament ever.

@@andywilliams8540 England has defeated France and Spain before too but it's been decades ago since the last time it happened then they beat Argentina most recently in world cup 2002

@@Darkscenes-jp4ge I watched the Spain peno game in 96. I suppose you could argue we knocked Argentina out of 02, even though it was the group stage. Did we beat France in 82? We knocked Portugal out at the semis in 66.

@@andywilliams8540 Only Italy and Brazil England still hasn't defeated from the big nations

Trouble is they didn't.

Square ball Wilkins, his default setting.

@@duffymoony Or “The Crab” as he was often referred to

Reliable but overated player. He used to do crossfield balls instead of picking out forward placed players.

That is the freedom Ron Greenwood gave to his players: when in possession they can interchange positions as the flow of the game demands. Hence, Brookings and Keegan play like old-fashion inside-forwards. Also, I understand that at certain times of the year the wings at Wembley can be pretty soggy; and Coppell knows this. Wrong combination of players cost England that earlier fixture in Italy.

Can I suggest that Phil Neal was maybe the only weak link at the back for England in the 1982 team?..not as good a defender as he was coming forward?

Steve Coppell of Man Utd.

well said mate.