| count = 3rd
| matches = 52
| goals = 115
| attendance = 2517348
| top scorer = Salvatore Schillaci
6 goals
}}
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was designated by FIFA in 1984 to be held in Italy, making it the second country to host the event twice. It was won by West Germany, who in a rematch of the 1986 World Cup final beat Argentina 1-0 to lift the trophy.

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Venues

* Stadio Olimpico, Rome - 81,000 matches
* Stadio San Paolo, Naples - 74,000 matches
* Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin - 68,000 matches
* Stadio San Nicola, Bari - 56,000 matches
* Stadio Comunale (now Stadio Artemio Franchi), Florence - 41,000 matches
* Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan - 85,700 matches
* Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genova - 35,000 matches
* Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna - 39,000 matches
* Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, Verona - 42,000 matches
* Stadio Friuli, Udine - 38,000 matches
* Stadio Sant'Elia, Cagliari - 40,000 matches
* Stadio La Favorita (now Stadio Renzo Barbera), Palermo - 36,000 matches

Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see 1990 FIFA World Cup squads

Tournament

With its third title (and three second place finishes) West Germany became the most successful World Cup nation for four years, until Brazil won their fourth title in 1994. West German team manager Franz Beckenbauer became the second footballer, after Mario Zagallo of Brazil, to become World Champion as a player (in 1974) and as team manager. In doing so, Beckenbauer also became the first captain of a winning team to later manage a winning squad.

The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1986: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. 16 teams would qualify for the knockout competition: six group winners, six second place finishers, and four best third place finishers. Three nations qualified for the first time in their history: Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.

The World Cup began with an upset. Defending champion Argentina fell 0-1 to Cameroon in the opening match. The match was held in Milan, where Diego Maradona of Argentina, striker for AC Napoli, was deeply despised: this resulted in an unexpected public support for Cameroon. The goal was headed in by François Omam-Biyik. Cameroon went on to become the surprise team of the tournament, becoming the first African nation to go to the quarter-finals and losing there 2-3 in extra time to England after leading 2-1. Cameroon's Roger Milla, who came out of retirement for the World Cup, became an international superstar at age 38, long after most top-level footballers typically retire.

Argentina recovered from their defeat and went all the way to the final. On their way, they defeated Brazil in the round of 16 and, in the semi-final, were the first team in this tournament to score a goal against the hosts Italy, winning through a penalty shootout after a 1-1 score after extra time. Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea saved two penalty kicks.

Italian Salvatore Schillaci won the Golden Boot with six goals, scoring a goal in every game that he appeared in. Amazingly, 'Totò' had played for Italy only once prior to the tournament.

The World Cup 1990 is widely regarded as one of the least spectacular and most cynical World Cups ever. It generated a record-low goals-per-game average and (at the time) record 16 red cards. Most teams relied heavily on defensive play and hard tackling, as well as aggressive intimidation of the referee. In the knock-out stage of the cup, many teams would "play it safe" for 120 minutes and try their luck in the penalty shootout, rather than risk going forward. Runners-up Argentina were the prime example of this trend, taking the gold-plated medal (for second place) despite scoring only five goals in seven games (they had, however, lost half their team to injury or suspension by the final). World Champions West Germany were one of the few teams to choose an attacking style of play, although they too became more defensive as the tournament progressed.

The final was one of the ugliest games ever seen in a World Cup. The fraught atmosphere was not helped by a number of questionable penalty decisions by the Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal, who denied clear penalties first to German player Klaus Augenthaler and then to Argentine player Pedro Monzón. Six minutes from the end, Codesal awarded a highly debatable penalty for the Germans, which was put away by Andreas Brehme. West Germany won 1-0 and the match ended amid scenes of unprecedented chaos with Argentina reduced to nine men, Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti having been sent off. http://www.goal.com/en/articolo.aspx?contenutoId=56454

Qualification

See 1990 FIFA World Cup (qualification)

First round

All kick-off times local (CET)

Group A

Scorers

;6 goals
*20px Salvatore Schillaci

;5 goals
*20px Tomáš Skuhravý

;4 goals
*20px Roger Milla
*20px Gary Lineker
*20px Lothar Matthäus
*20px Michel

;3 goals
*20px David Platt
*20px Andreas Brehme
*20px Jürgen Klinsmann
*20px Rudi Völler

;2 goals
*20px Claudio Caniggia
*20px Careca
*20px Müller
*20px Bernardo Redin
*20px Michal Bílek
*20px Roberto Baggio
*20px Gavrila Balint
*20px Marius Lacatus
*20px Davor Jozić
*20px Darko Pančev
*20px Dragan Stojković
;1 goal
*20px Andreas Ogris
*20px Gerhard Rodax
*20px Jorge Burruchaga
*20px Pedro Monzon
*20px Pedro Troglio
*20px Jan Ceulemans
*20px Leo Clijsters
*20px Marc Degryse
*20px Enzo Scifo
*20px Patrick Vervoort
*20px Michel De Wolf
*20px François Omam-Biyik
*20px Eugène Ekeke
*20px Emmanuel Kunde
*20px Freddy Rincon
*20px Carlos Valderrama
*20px Juan Arnoldo Cayasso
*20px Roger Flores
*20px Ronald González
*20px Hernán Medford
*20px Ivan Hašek
*20px Luboš Kubík
*20px Milan Luhový
*20px Magdi Abdelghani
*20px Mark Wright
*20px Uwe Bein
*20px Pierre Littbarski
*20px Niall Quinn
*20px Kevin Sheedy
*20px Giuseppe Giannini
*20px Aldo Serena
*20px Ruud Gullit
*20px Willem Kieft
*20px Ronald Koeman
*20px Mo Johnston
*20px Stuart McCall
*20px Hwang Bo-Kwan
*20px Igor Dobrovolski
*20px Oleg Protasov
*20px Aleksandr Zavarov
*20px Andrei Zygmantovich
*20px Gorriz
*20px Julio Salinas
*20px Tomas Brolin
*20px Johnny Ekström
*20px Glenn Strömberg
*20px Ali Thani Jumaa
*20px Khalid Mubarak
*20px Paul Caligiuri
*20px Bruce Murray
*20px Pablo Bengoechea
*20px Daniel Fonseca
*20px Robert Prosinečki
*20px Safet Sušić

Firsts

*For the first time, both World Cup semi-finals were decided by penalty shootouts.
*First appearance of Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, and reappearance of the United States after a 40-year absence. Both the UAE and the USA went out in the group stage.
*For the first time the second place team of a group was decided by draw: in Group F.
*This was the first (and only, so far) World Cup in which two European teams were defeated by a Central American squad: Costa Rica, who beat Scotland 1-0, and Sweden 2-1.

The final alone had several firsts:
*For the first time a team reached three World Cup finals in a row: West Germany had already lost the finals in 1982 and 1986. This feat was later repeated by Brazil in 1994, 1998 and 2002 with better results: two titles out of three finals.
*It was the first rematch of a preceding final: The two countries had met in the 1986 FIFA World Cup final with Argentina the victors.
* Pedro Monzón of Argentina became the first player to be sent off in a World Cup final. Teammate Gustavo Abel Dezotti was also sent off.
*For the first time, the losing team did not score a goal: Germany won by a penalty, almost saved by Sergio Goycochea, scored in the 85th minute by Andreas Brehme after a disputed foul on Rudi Völler. As such, West Germany's Bodo Illgner became the first goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in a World Cup final.

Trivia

*USSR was the rival of Italy's candidacy to host the event.
*The 1990 tournament had the lowest goals-per-match average of all World Cups. There were 115 goals, an average of 2.21 goals per match, and, taking account of extra time matches, 4920 minutes of play - which means 1 goal every 42.7 minutes, or only 2.1 goals for every 90 minutes.
*The reached the quarter-finals despite not winning a single game and only scoring 2 goals.
* were disqualified from the 1990 qualifiers as the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación fielded an overage player in a prior youth tournament. They have since qualified for four consecutive World Cups.
* Even though England lost the semi-final, and then the third place play-off, thousands of England fans greeted the team home as heroes, as it was the best they had done since 1966, when they won at Wembley.
* This World Cup saw The Three Tenors begin their tradition of performing on the eve of the final.
* World Cup Italia '90 was the official licensed videogame product.
* Diego Maradona seemed to confirm in 2005 a rumour that the water a member of the Argentinean staff offered to Brazilian midfielder Branco in the round of 16 Brazil vs Argentina match contained a tranquilizer.

Lasts

*This would be the last World Cup in which goalkeepers were allowed to pick up direct backpasses from teammates. The backpass rule was in use from the 1994 tournament in order to make it harder for teams to time-waste, having been introduced on July 1, 1992. It is thought that Egypt's performance in their match against the Republic of Ireland influenced the introduction of this new rule.
*This was the last World Cup in which four teams' countries existed as political entities: West Germany joined with East Germany shortly after the tournament, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 (although they continued to play as one country when failing to qualify for the 1994 tournament), Yugoslavia dissolved into the nations Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro (the latter two were Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 2002, and Serbia and Montenegro 2003-2006), and the USSR, which split into Russia and fourteen smaller states with the fall of the Communist regime, although eleven of the former Soviet states fielded a CIS team in the 1992 European Football Championship.
* This was also the last time World Cup finals matches awarded two points for a win during the group stage. The poor attacking play of sides prompted FIFA to introduce three points for a win for the 1994 tournament, to encourage attacking play.
*This was the last World Cup in which referees only wore traditional black jersey: starting from the 1994 FIFA World Cup, referees can choose other colours to avoid a clash with the two competing teams. This has been followed since 1994, although black has been provided as an option since 1998.
*This was also the last World Cup in which players only had their number printed in the back of their jersey. Players would have their names and numbers on their jerseys from 1994.

External links

*Italia 90 on the FIFA website
*Details at RSSSF
*The Great White Hope: Gazza at Italia '90 - Extract from new book about the England football team by author James Corbett

Football World Cup
Category:1990 FIFA World Cup
Category:FIFA World Cup tournaments
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