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How many times have England reached the World Cup quarter-finals? Terry Butcher reminisces
I WAS lucky enough to be part of one of only three teams to win a quarter-final match in a major tournament when we beat Cameroon in 1990.
World Cup Insider: England are relaxed but confident
I remember being told it was like a bye because they were so ill-disciplined and out of shape we would get through easily. That was our official scouting report...Oops!
It was one of the most difficult games we had had – they were strong, athletic and ran and ran.
We were 2-1 down and almost out with 20 minutes to go and did not have any answer to them – they were just too strong for us. I was taken off at that point and remember saying to my room-mate Chris Woods on the bench: ‘That’s us on the plane home then’.
But Bobby Robson changed it to 4-4-2 and it got us second wind. Gary Lineker got the penalty to make it 2-2 and we went on to get another one in extra time.
I also saw first hand our most recent quarter-final win. I was there doing some radio work down on he touchline at Wembley for the Spain game in Euro 96. I remember Pearcey scoring from the penalties and David Seaman was amazing – I felt cleansed as a lot of the stigma dropped off from our shoot-out failure in 1990.
However, I have little recollection of 1966 when we beat Argentina 1-0 in the quarter-finals. I do remember the semis, though, against Portugal. I was allowed to get fish and chips on the way to my Aunties to celebrate.
1966 World Cup Quarter-final, Wembley
England 1 Argentina 0
1990 World Cup Quarter-final, Naples
Cameroon 2 England 3
1996 European Championship quarter-finals, Wembley
Spain 0 England 0 (England won 4-2 on pens)