This opening match in the 'Little World Cup' tournament was staged in the wake of the Heysel Stadium tragedy in which 38 spectators died during rioting before the Liverpool-Juventus European Cup Final. Players from both sides showed tremendous character in what was a difficult game for everybody involved, and a 1-1 draw looked the likely satisfactory outcome until the Mexican referee amazed even the Italians by awarding them an eighty-eighth minute penalty from which Altobelli scored the winning goal. Peter Shilton was beaten by a shot that swerved in the thin air for Italy's first goal that was quickly cancelled out by Mark Hateley. In the last seconds England had an obvious penalty turned down when Gary Lineker was brought down when shaping to shoot. Gary Stevens made his debut at right-back in a game that raised little excitement in ciudad de México. There were just 8,000 spectators dotted around the Azteca Stadium that would be the venue for the World Cup final a year later.

Source Notes

TheFA.com
ITV original broadcast
Original newspaper reports
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG