The 1990 World Cup semi-final between England and West Germany saw the rivals pitted against each other in a dramatic match that eventually went to penalties, though one player involved in the shootout had never taken one before that moment.
During the normal 90 minutes, Andreas Brehme struck a direct free-kick past Peter Shilton in the England goal at the start of the second-half to give West Germany the lead, but Gary Lineker equalised 10 minutes from the end of normal time.
An uneventful extra-time – aside from Paul Gascoigne’s tears after being yellow carded – meant the World Cup semi-final would be decided on penalties.
West Germany had a debut penalty taker against England at Italia 90
Karl-Heinz Riedle was only making his 10th appearance for West Germany that evening in Italy, replacing the injured Rudi Voller in the first half of the match.
“It was an open game,” Riedle exclusively tells FourFourTwo. “We were evenly matched. England had a really good team at that time – it was the peak of Paul Gascoigne and David Platt.
“We were lucky with the penalties. Germany were always very strong in penalty shootouts; we had never failed there before at the World Cup, so we were confident that if it got to that point, we could make it.”
Riedle, though, had never taken a penalty in his professional career before that semi-final, despite having bagged more than 60 goals until that moment. But, as a striker, he knew he had to take responsibility and do what he did best – finding the back of the net.
“It was also a curious story because when it came to penalty kicks, Beckenbauer was searching for players to take one,” Riedle adds. “I think we had two or three players who were experienced penalty-takers, then Beckenbauer was looking for a fourth and a fifth. He came to me but I said, ‘Oh Franz, I’ve never taken a penalty in my career before, so maybe not.’
So, he went looking for another guy. He walked to Jurgen Kohler and I thought, ‘You can’t let a defender take one in a semi-final’, so I went back to him straight away and said, ‘Franz, I feel very good – I can make it’. That was the first penalty ever took in my whole professional career!
“I was a little bit shaky when I was walking from the halfway line to the penalty area, but I calmed down when I was on the spot. Then I was really confident that I could score. They had Peter Shilton in goal and he wasn’t the quickest at that time, so it was quite easy to score. I hit the penalty into the top right corner – it was unstoppable.”
England were leading 3-2 in the shootout when Riedle stepped up, with the Three Lions having dispatched all their penalties. Once Riedle found the net, however, Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle both missed as Olaf Thon scored to send West Germany to the World Cup final.
Riedle missed out on an appearance in that game, with Voller passed fit to return against Argentina, though he still managed to play four times at that successful World Cup campaign.
