Ireland 0-0 Romania (1990)
The date was 25 June, 1990. The place was the Luigi Ferraris Stadium, Genoa.
By Conor Hogan
There is a reason that in discussions about the most famous match in Irish football history, you always hear about the penalty shoot-out that occurred afterwards, and never about the match itself. You see, nobody can remember a damn thing about it.
After coming through the group stage, Ireland were drawn against a Romania side that included the ‘Maradona of the Carpathians’ Gheorghe Hagi. Nobody gave them much hope of winning, and sure enough they didn’t. They drew, just like in every other game of the tournament up to that point.
After 120 boring minutes in sweltering conditions in Genoa (of which the most notable incident was a horrendous tackle by John Aldridge on Hagi), Brazilian referee Jose Roberto Wright sounded the final whistle. Romania had been the better team but hadn’t created a whole lot, except for a couple of long range efforts.
Now it was to be decided on penalties. The first eight were all successful (including an awful one by Tony Cascarino). Then Daniel Timofte hit a poor penalty to Packie Bonner’s left, and the Donegal man comfortably saved it. His ecstatic celebration was mirrored by that of the rest of the nation.
Stepping up to take the fifth and decisive penalty for Ireland was a man who had played 26 minutes in the entire tournament. A man who had been frozen out of the Irish set-up for years by Jack Charlton. He scored. Grown men cried. George Hamilton lost his voice. Ireland were in the quarter finals of the World Cup.
