Former England international Lee Dixon admitted he couldn’t help but laugh after San Marino scored that infamous goal against Three Lions back in their 1993 World Cup qualifier.
England host the minnows at Wembley on Thursday night in the first match of their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, and Gareth Southgate’s man will be hoping to avoid making the same mistake Stuart Pearce made when San Marino stunned England almost 30 years ago.
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England made unwanted history against the European minnows when they went 1-0 up after just 8.33 seconds back in that clash back in 1993, recording the fastest in World Cup qualifying history – a record since eclipsed by Christian Benteke who scored in 8.1 seconds for Belgium in 2018.
Stuart Pearce tried to intercept a ball in behind and attempted to pass it back to David Seaman, but it never reached the goalkeeper as Davide Gualtieri was able to stab home and put San Marino ahead.
Famously, commentator Jonathan Pearce wasn’t even able to complete his welcome before the ball was in the net, saying: “To Bologna for England versus San Marino with Tennent’s Pilsner, brewed with Czechoslovakian yeast for that extra Pilsner taste… and England are one down.”
England went on to win 7-1, but it was a memorable moment in World Cup qualifying history.
“My England career could have ended that night,” Dixon told talkSPORT Breakfast, ahead of the seventh meeting between the nations on Thursday night.
“We were playing San Marino and I’m not saying you’re not focused, but the game has kicked off and down the other side.
“So I’m wandering around going it’ll just go back and Pearcy [Stuart Pearce] will do something. So, how am I going to get involved in the move going the other way?
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“I looked over and saw Pearcy go to knock it back to David Seaman, and it’s gone in.
“If it had been today where there are 50million cameras I would have had to retire, because I burst out laughing.
“I was in such shock, my reaction was ‘I don’t know what to do now’. So I just laughed. I actually found it quite amusing at the time and immediately went into, ‘oh my god, what are the papers going to say?’”
Even though England went on to win, manager Graham Taylor resigned from his post just six days after that game as the Three Lions failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 16 years.
A disappointing qualifying campaign and a defeat to the Netherlands in their penultimate game, Taylor’s side went into their final match needing to beat San Marino by seven goals and hope the Dutch failed to beat Poland to reach the USA.
But, fortunately for Pearce, Holland one again to ultimately make England’s San Marino win – and the defender’s mistake at the back – meaningless.
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Pearce, who will be in the co-commentator seat for talkSPORT at Wembley, joined on the Breakfast show: “Going into the game, I thought to myself ‘what can I do to get a chuckle out of Dicko [Lee Dixon] tonight?’
“A moment of weakness on the football pitch, nowadays I only have a moment of weakness around a cake counter.
“We had to win the game by seven clear goals and hope the Dutch lost their game, I think they were playing Poland.
“The game ended up 7-1, so that would have been six goals, so I wanted to go in there and was praying the Dutch won.
“If the Dutch had dropped points, we’d have ended going out by one goal. It could have got worse.”
Gareth Southgate will be hoping to avoid a similar fate and claim a perfect start to his team’s road to the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Tune into talkSPORT for LIVE commentary of England vs San Marino from Wembley Stadium – Kick off: 7:45pm
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