On 26 June 1990, the last quarter-final of the World Cup in Italy was played at the Renato D'Al Ala Stadium in Bologna.
Although England have an overwhelming advantage in terms of historical records, the two teams have shown different states in this World Cup. Although they scored four points from each group, Belgium scored six goals and conceded three goals in three games, and the firepower was still quite fierce. In contrast, although the Englishman only conceded one goal, the two goals did not match the identity of their strong team.
In fact, the biggest bad news for the English is that Brian Robson bid farewell to this World Cup due to injury, and the double captain of England and Manchester United was injured in the match against the Netherlands, and even returned home early at this time, and his absence is undoubtedly a huge loss for England.
England's "butcher" centre-back Terry Butcher returned to the starting line-up, with Steve Bull on the bench and the other players as they did with Egypt. The Belgian side has changed a lot, with Gerretz coming back from suspension and Cristels, Georges Glenn and Bruno Fossaville also appearing in the starting list.
Just 2 minutes after the start of the match, England almost lost the goal. Belgium launched a quick counter-attack in the face of Fosaville's shot, and although the veteran goalkeeper Hilton struggled to save, the ball came to the back post. Seeing that Belgium's players were about to make up for the goal, Mark Wright arrived in time to break the ball out of the bottom line, and England escaped the disaster.
Despite missed opportunities, the Belgian team began to gradually gain the initiative on the field through patient passing and organization. Veteran Thurmans also began to threaten England's goal frequently, after deflecting a long-range shot. In the 15th minute of the game, Thurlemans almost scored, but was rejected by the goalpost, and England once again escaped the disaster.
England, who were in the ascendant, naturally did not have many shooting opportunities, and most of them relied on set-piece opportunities, only Barnes's shot made Predholm stretch his muscles. In fact, the Englishman also sent the ball into the Belgian team twice, but the referees decided that Reinker and Barnes were already offside the moment they shot. In the end, the two sides exchanged white rolls to end the half-game.
Neither side made substitutions at halftime, after all, Belgium played well in the first half, so naturally there was no need to make adjustments quickly. Although the England team was passive, the attack also began to improve in the last fifteen minutes of the first half, so it was not in a hurry to adjust for the time being.
The two sides quickly got into form as the second half began, with Barnes putting Predholm into a test with a shot from outside the box. Not to be outdone, Schiffer then returned a shot from outside the box, but his shot was even more unfortunate, hitting the left upright and bouncing out of the frame.
England then got a good chance, with Reinkel facing Predholm. However, the latter's decisive attack allowed the attack to finally be defused, and Reinker also fell to the ground in pain after colliding with Predholm.
After seemingly back and forth, the game began to re-enter the control of the Belgian team, and they launched various onslaughts on the English team's goal, and even Klassen, who had just replaced De Grace, could almost score after eating Walker. This made England manager Robson Sr. unable to sit still, so in the 71st minute of the game, he decided to make a substitution, first replacing McMahon with Pratt, and then replacing Barnes with Burl just 3 minutes later. The elder Robson at this time would never have imagined that replacing pratt would be so important.
The situation on the court after the substitution of the two people has not improved much, even if the physical strength has declined, but the shots of Hief and Fosavel and others continue to test hilton's nerves, compared to the England team, some players began to become a little impatient, after fouling Hief, Gascoin received the only yellow card from the two teams in this game. Both sides were unable to rewrite the score, and the game had to go into extra time.
After entering extra time, the two sides still quickly entered the rhythm and scored a good opportunity, first Pratt Pratt flew out of the column with a half-turn volley that was almost unguarded. It was even more a pity for the Belgian side, and the shots of Fosaville and Schiffer were also deflected off the post. Although the two sides have many opportunities, they just can't break the goal.
Just as the game was heading towards a penalty shootout, there was a change on the pitch. Just 1 minute before the end of the match, Gascoin broke through quickly with the ball, Geretz put it down, and England won a free kick opportunity.
Gascoin personally took the free kick, only to see him lightly pick the right rib of the small penalty area in his run, and Pratt met the ball and turned to shoot at the goal. The score became 1:0.
At this point, of course, there was no time for the Belgian to equalize, and in the end, with Pratt's death, England won the game in a thrilling last minute.