WORLD CUP 1994                                                                                World Cup football home page
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England did not qualify for the World Cup finals in 1994, held in the USA. In the qualification group with Holland, Turkey, Norway, Poland and San Marino England lost away to Norway 2-0 and Holland 2-0. England drew against Norway and Holland at home (and also drew against Poland away).

Although England won the other games they finished third in their group and failed to qualify - Graham Taylor then left the England Manager's job. Taylor had a special reporting team following him around  in the 2-0 loss away to Holland and his fury at the poor performance of the referee that day made an interesting programme to watch.

Shown below are the first round groups in the finals in the order in which they finished (teams in bold qualified for the second stage):

Group A: Romania, Switzerland, USA, Columbia
Group B: Brazil, Sweden, Russia, Cameroon
Group C: Germany, Spain, South Korea, Bolivia
Group D: Nigeria, Bulgaria, Argentina, Greece
Group E: Mexico, Italy, Ireland, Norway
Group F: Holland, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Morocco

In the second round the results were:
Germany 3 Belgium 2
Spain 3 Switzerland 0
Sweden 3 S Arabia 1
Romania 3 Argentina 2
Holland 2 Ireland 0
Brazil 1 USA 0
Italy 2 Nigeria 1
Bulgaria 1 Mexico 1 (after extra time - Bulgaria won 3-1 on penalties)

                                     
                  Mazinho, Bebeto and Romario celebrate Bebeto's goal for Brazil against Holland

In the quarter finals the results were:
Italy 2 Spain 1
Brazil 3 Holland 2
Bulgaria 2 Germany 1
Sweden 2 Romania 2 (after extra time - Sweden won 5-4 on penalties)

In the semi finals Italy beat Bulgaria 2-1 while Brazil beat Sweden 1-0. In the 3rd place play off Sweden beat Bulgaria 4-0. In the final Brazil beat Italy 3-2 on penalties after the game finished 0-0 after extra time. It was not a great final and Baresi, Massaro and R Baggio missed their penalties for Italy to give Brazil the victory.