World Cup 1990 in Italy: success for Czechoslovakia, gold for Germany, Beckenbauer rewrites World Championship history

The 1990 World Cup offered all its fans a great football show. And especially for the fans of Czechoslovakia, this World Cup became one of the most beautiful in football history, albeit with an early end in the quarter-finals. The Germans took the gold, Argentina the silver and the Italians the bronze.

Italy hosted the World Cup in 12 cities – Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples, Bari, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Verona, Udine, Cagliari and Palermo. 114 countries qualified for the 1990 World Cup, with 24 teams taking part in the final tournament.

In terms of the participants themselves, the 1990 World Cup in Italy had two representatives from Asia and Africa, six representatives from the American continent and fourteen teams from Europe.

South Korea and the United Arab Emirates were the two countries that qualified for the 1990 tournament as members of Asia, while for Africa it was Egypt and Cameroon. For the Americas, the following countries qualified for the championship – USA, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

As for the countries of the European continent, Sweden, Germany, Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy, Belgium, Austria, England, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, Scotland, the USSR, Spain and the Netherlands took part in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

A successful tournament for Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakians will remember the 1990 World Cup in Italy as a wonderful tournament, albeit one that ended before the gates of the semi-finals. However, the national team of that time came through the main group quite convincingly.

Czechoslovakia defeated the USA 5:1, with two goals from Tomáš Skuhravý and one goal each from Michal Bílek, Ivan Hašek and Milan Luhový. Czechoslovakia then defeated Austria, with Bílek scoring the only goal of the game on a penalty kick.

In the last match of the group, Czechoslovakia fell 0:2 to Italy after goals by Salvatore Schillaci and Roberto Baggio. However, from the second place they advanced to the eighth round, where they met the national team of Costa Rica. In spite of the result (4:1), it was a close match.

Skuhravý scored a hat-trick and Luboš Kubík also scored one goal. In the quarter-finals, however, the Czechoslovakia was stopped by the Germans, who defeated Skuhravý and co. narrowly 1: 0. Lothar Matthäus scored a goal from a penalty kick in the 25th minute to decide the match.

However, you can find out more about Czechoslovakia’s performance at the 1990 World Cup in Italy in our above attached special, which we filmed with the well-known and experienced journalist Stanislav Hrabět. As a journalist, he visited the tournament in Italy in person and thus offers a view from the very heart of the action or the view of Czechoslovak fans.

The Germans walked away with the gold

The German national team proved its qualities in the preliminary group, which it won with five points and advanced to the eight-finals from first place. It was there that Germany knocked out the Netherlands 2-1, and we have already written about the quarter-final duel with Czechoslovakia above.

In the semi-final the German national team faced England, and it should be noted that it was a really exciting match. After normal time the score was 1-1, with Andreas Brehme scoring for Germany and the star Gary Lineker scoring for England.

The extra time did not bring a decision, so it went to a penalty shootout, in which Germany was more successful. The Germans advanced to the final, where they faced a really tough opponent, the defending champion from 1986 – Argentina.

However, Diego Maradona could not lead his country to gold medals at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Germany did better in the final and it was Brehme who scored the most important goal of the tournament. It should be added that it was in the 85th minute and from a penalty.

However, the final of this tournament was one of the most controversial in the history of the World Cup, not least because of the terrible performance of referee Edgar Codesal.

Argentina silver, Italy at least with bronze

Argentina had already advanced from the preliminary group to the third position, thanks to the ranking of the third-placed teams. Three points, one win, one draw and one loss, with a score of 3::2 – that was the Argentinian record after the regular group.

In the eighth round, however, this team managed to send home the Brazilians, who in turn clearly won their group. So we can talk about the surprise of the tournament, even though this is what football is. In the quarter-finals, Argentina did not perform very convincingly either. It was 0:0 with Yugoslavia after 120 minutes, and Maradona even missed his attempt in the subsequent penalty shootout.

Gustavo Dezotti sent the Argentine national team on its way. In the semi-final, the Argentines also failed to win in normal time, winning against the Italians on penalties. Given the course of the tournament, it can be said that they deservedly lost in the final against Germany and did not defend their gold.

The home team played Czechoslovakia in Group A and won all their matches. They advanced to the eighth round, where they beat Uruguay 2-0. In the quarter-final against Ireland, Schillaci scored one goal to decide the match. He also scored in the match against Argentina, which the Italians eventually failed to win in a shoot-out.

However, Italy won the battle for bronze and won a medal at home. The star Baggio scored to make it 1-0 against England, but David Platt equalised in the 81st. In the end, however, the bronze medal was decided by a goal in the 86th minute (from a penalty) by the late king of scorers Schillaci.

The 1990 World Cup in Italy was a truly beautiful tournament in terms of fans and sport. And as we have already written above, you can find out more about the whole championship in our special feature, in which we cover the tournament in detail. It should be added, it was again a tournament that offered a lot, so don’t hesitate to watch our special.

Speaking of numbers…

With six goals, the top scorer of the tournament was the Italian Schillaci, but only one goal behind him was the Czech Skuhravý. Apart from these scorers, we can also include the legendary Maradona and the German Matthäus among the biggest stars of the tournament.

The 1990 World Cup in Italy was attended by a total of two and a half million spectators, namely 2 516 348. That is an average of 48 391 fans per match. 115 goals in 52 games means 2.21 goals per game.

In any case, the 14th World Cup also produced several other records and historical records. One important one was Franz Beckenbauer, who won the World Championship as captain (1974) and as coach.

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