THE WEATHER for the tournament was almost perfect, a mixture of warm sunshine, occasional rain to cool the players and some wonderful football was enjoyed by the watching millions around the world.

England, Scotland and Northern Ireland qualified for the final stages and much was certainly expected of England despite injury worries to Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking.

England got off to a flier against France, Bryan Robson scoring in England's first attack and that inspired a 3-1 English win which was the springboard to reach the second round.

Northern Ireland were the surprise package, winning their group ahead of host nation Spain, but it was a familiar story for Scotland, eliminated in a group won, as expected by Brazil.

That put England in a second round group with West Germany and Spain, while Northern Ireland went in with France and Austria and so both British teams fancied their chances of reaching the semi-finals.

England's first match in the second round was against West Germany, it was largely a non event as both sides cancelled each other out in defence and it all fizzled out into a tame goalless draw.

That set England the task of beating Spain, but without the talents of Keegan and Brooking from the start it was always going to be difficult. England carved out chance after chance but the Spanish goal survived and once again England had to settle for a nil-nil draw. However, that was not enough for West Germany fired on all cylinders in their match against Spain, won 2-1 and so went onto the semi finals.

England without losing a match - and conceding just one goal - were out of the tournament.

That left Northern Ireland to carry the British flag but the strength of France was too much for them and a brilliant challenge came to an end, but they won the hearts of the footballing world for a great effort.

So the semi-finalists were Italy versus Poland and West Germany versus France, an all European affair as South America stood by and watched.

In the early stages of the competition, Italy had played their typically defensive style of football, taking no chances at all. Not so in the semi-final. Poland were run ragged by the Italians, superbly led by striker Paulo Rossi, and his two goals put Italy into the final.

The other semi-final was an absolute battlefield as West Germany's blatant fouling saw Harald Schumacher take out the Frenchman Patrick Battiston with a tackle as bad as anything seen in football. Yet it went unpunished.

Then it was the French who came good, leading 3-1 in extra time.The rest of the world willed France to win. But in the space of six minutes West Germany were level at 3-3 to take the game to a penalty shoot-out.

West Germany held their nerve and against the odds won 5-4. It was Italy versus West Germany in the final.

It was a classic. Italy played at their best and should have gone ahead early on but Antonio Cabrini missed from the penalty spot. But ten minutes into the second half Paulo Rossi scored with a flying header. He then set up a second for Marco Tardelli and it looked all over. It most certainly was in the 81st minute when Altobelli knocked in a third. Breitner got a goal back for Germany but it was too little too late.

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