The sequel to the England-Italy qualifier that I described yesterday was that despite Italy's win, England went to Rome for the last qualifying match in the stronger position to qualify. Italy dropped points (I remember a 0-0 draw against Georgia) while England played the rest of their qualifiers quite a little bit better than the one I witnessed at Wembley.
So in October 1997 England only needed a draw to qualify while Italy needed a win to avoid having to go through the play-offs. I remember a tense much and not much else, except for Ian Wright rounding the Italian goalkeeper towards the end and...and...hitting the post! England qualified but there was almost a sense of disappointment (I'm sure not just from me) that Wright didn't score and England didn’t avenge the 1-0 defeat at Wembley.
But again, just like at Wembley, my strongest memory of the whole incredibly tense evening was not what happened in the 90 minutes but a silly part of the build up to the match. I say silly but it is actually a recurring dilemma for many a football fan. While I was attempting to round up a few of my closest football watching friends to share the fun, the I can't bear to watch kind of fun, of watching England in this must-draw encounter one of my my wise, good friends hesitated. He questioned where it would be best to watch: at home where he could concentrate on every move, every near miss from each team; or in a bar where, invariably, there would be a lot of part-time, jump on the bandwagon kind of fans who would shout out things like offside when there was definitely a defender keeping the centre forward onside when the ball was played forward. I mean, really! In the end he was convinced to join us and it was a wonderful night of little conversation and occasional groans at the TVs. What a night! Entertainment has a different meaning for football supporters.
Italy did eventually qualify by beating Russia in the play-offs. England stuttered through the group phase at France '98. In the second round, Michael Owen's bursting on to the scene performance did not prevent another heroic defeat, this time to Argentina. But just getting there was a big part of the fun.
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