One evening in Madrid, almost exactly 29 years ago, Gary Lineker inspired England to a stunning 4-2 win over Spain at the Bernabeu.
Lineker finished his evening’s work with less than an hour on the clock. In fact, all four goals came in a frenzied 33-minute burst, two before half-time and two after the restart.
The remarkable feat meant that Lineker – a Barcelona player at the time – became the man to have scored the most goals against Spain in a single match, a record that stands to this very day.
One month beforehand, Lineker had scored a hat-trick for Barca against Real Madrid at Camp Nou.
As such, his international goal-glut was met with fawning headlines from the Spanish press, with one Catalan paper proudly crowing “Catalan player scores four goals against Spain” in defiant, anti-imperialist fashion.
Madrid-based AS instead went with “Relentless Lineker” at the top of their match report…
Photo: @English_AS/Twitter
Playing for England that night were Peter Shilton, Viv Anderson, Terry Butcher, Bryan Robson, Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle. It truly was a glorious period in England’s selection history, as old battle-hardened veterans mixed with exciting and exuberant youngsters.
Speaking of which, also making his international debut was a 20-year-old central defender by the name of Tony Adams.
See how positively chuffed he was…
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