WORLD CUP ’90 : England Fit to Not Be Tied : World Cup: Victory over underdog Egypt wins Group F. Ireland and Netherlands also advance. One is dead in a bus crash, but hooligans are not at fault.
A second-half goal carried England past Egypt, 1-0, and into the second round of the World Cup Thursday at the head of a tightly bunched, goal-stingy group of teams afflicted with draw fever on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.
In the other Group F game, in Palermo, Ireland rallied for a 1-1 tie with the Netherlands. It was enough to advance both teams, and, with the help of a tiebreaking lottery, completed second-round pairings.
Once again, about 3,000 no-nonsense Italian police flooded Cagliari streets, and once again they overwhelmed English soccer hooligans.
There were no major hooligan incidents, but the Cagliari finale was marred by a crash in a bus caravan north of the city. Three of six buses carrying English fans to the game, under police escort, collided. Police reported one dead and 24 others, including the Italian bus driver, injured. Four remained hospitalized early today.
England’s victory was the only one of six Group F games played in Sicily and Sardinia over the past 10 days that did not end in a tie.
In Palermo Thursday night, Ruud Gullit scored an early goal for the Netherlands, but underdog Ireland battled back for a second-half equalizer from Niall Quinn, leaving Ireland and the Netherlands tied for second in the tournament’s tightest group. Ireland was placed second in a lottery in Rome, which put it in a better second-round position. Ireland opens the second round against Romania.
As the third-place team, the Netherlands drew the unenviable lot of opening the second round against tough West Germany.
In Cagliari, England spoiled a stubborn Egyptian defense 12 minutes into the second half.
English midfielder Paul Gascoigne, the best player on the field in this game, lofted a free kick into the air from about 30 yards out to the right.
Rising high above the pack, defender Mark Wright grazed the ball, deflecting it into the net past diving goalie Ahmed Shobeir.
Afterward, English Coach Bobby Robson heaped praise on the Egyptians.
“They were very brave,” Robson said. “It was never easy.”
Battling desperately for a tie, Egypt, cheered on by hundreds of Egyptian naval cadets in dress whites and most of the Italian majority in the stadium, fought back with unflagging resolve.
Egypt came closest 20 minutes into the final period on a sharp exchange ending with a close-in shot from the right by Hossam Hassan. English goalie Peter Shilton smothered it with difficulty.
At the end of the game, England had nine defenders ranged in front of its net to hold off Egyptian attacks. In all, Egypt outshot England, 9-8, although most of those shots were from long distance.
England dominated the first half, playing well in the midfield and forcing passing mistakes by the smaller, less-experienced Egyptians without gaining advantage.
Up front, England repeatedly displayed an absence of ideas, forcing cluttered scrambles in front of the goal, but no good chances. Gascoigne attacked strongly but futilely for the English in a first half during which there were only three shots by each team and one save apiece by the opposing goal keepers.
Shilton made his save on Egypt’s best hope, a long bullet to the corner by Magdi Abdelghani late in the half.
Egypt, a plucky team of mostly part-timers, had not been given a prayer in its first Cup appearance since 1934. But the team had plenty of prayers, anyway. The Egyptian coach, a former army colonel and a fitness fanatic, took his players on pilgrimage to Mecca before the tournament began. And in a game earlier this week, when time came for a crucial Egyptian penalty kick against Ireland, the TV commentator heard in Cairo urged viewers to pray to Allah. The kick was good and Egypt earned its second tie in as many games.
Bryan Robson, England’s captain, also sought outside help. Before Thursday’s game, he summoned faith healer Olga Stringfellow, 70, from Surrey to treat his aching Achilles’ tendon. Apparently something went wrong, because Robson didn’t play Thursday.
Supplementing a day-of-game ban on the sale of alcohol, Italian authorities also banned a march to the stadium by English fans of the sort that brought violence before Saturday’s game against the Netherlands. It worked. The English fans arrived in small and orderly groups.
Spokesmen for the British Embassy here estimated that about 5,000 English fans, a relative handful of hooligans among them, had remained in Sardinia for the Egypt game.
On the mainland, precautions were already being taken for England’s second-round game Tuesday against Belgium in Bologna. Lord Ferrers, the minister of state in charge of police, promised in London Thursday that there would be a “rapid deployment” of Italian security forces and anti-hooligan British police specialists working with them.
With its part in the World Cup ended, none in Sardinia will lament the passing of the tattooed, beer-bellied, usually intoxicated English followers.
“Disappointing,” one Sardinian newspaper termed the Cup Thursday, complaining about the quality of soccer and the interruption of daily life on an agriculture-tourism island that has been under police siege for two weeks.
But if Sardinia will cheerfully watch the rest of it on television, the Cup did did bring benefits to this relatively poor part of Italy. Major improvements, including a modernized Cagliari airport, new access highways, an improved Sant’Elia stadium, and 21st Century telecommunications, will serve Sardinia long after the last broken beer stein has been replaced.
By all accounts, hooligan violence, quashed by the massive show of Italian force, could have been worse.
The British Embassy reported 72 arrests of English fans, mostly for drunkenness and vandalism. In an 1,800-game English soccer season, British police make about 6,000 hooligan arrests, the Embassy noted.
In Olbia on Tuesday night, drunken English fans clashed in a fist- and bottle-throwing brawl with Italians celebrating Italy’s third-game victory over Czechoslovakia. Police arrested 23 Englishmen and one Italian.
On Thursday, a Sardinian judge, noting it strange that a free-for-all should produce a 23-1 arrest disparity, threw out all charges.
One group of anti-hooligan English fans, complaining that all Englishmen on the island were being tarred with the same brush, organized blood donations as a gesture of thanks to Sardinia. About 30 fans donated to help in the treatment of thalassaemia, a blood disorder.
