The 1990 Football World Cup was held in Italy. It was won by West Germany, who beat Argentina 1-0 in the final.

With its third title (and three second place finishes) Germany became the most successful World Cup nation for 4 years, until Brazil won their 4th Championship in 1994. German team manager Franz Beckenbauer became the second footballer, after Mario Zagallo, to become World Champion as a player (in 1974) and as team manager.

The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1986: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. 16 teams would qualify for the knockout competition: six group winners, six second place finishers, and four best third place finishers. Three nations qualified for the first time in their history: Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.

The World Cup began with an upset. Defending Champion Argentina fell 0-1 to Cameroon in the opening match. Cameroon went on to become the surprise team of the Championship, becoming the first African nation to go to the quarter finals and bowing there only in extra time with 2-3 to England after leading 2-1. Cameroon's Roger Milla, who came out of retirement specifically for the World Cup, became an international superstar at age 38, long after most top-level footballers typically retire.

But Argentina recovered from their defeat and went all the way to the final. On their way they defeated Brazil in the round of the last 16 and, in the semi final, were the first team in this tournament to score a goal against the hosts Italy winning through penalties after a 1-1 score after extra time.

Italian Salvatore Schillaci won the Golden Boot with six goals, scoring a goal in every game that he apeared in. Amazingly, 'Toto' only played for Italy once prior to the tournament.

The World Cup 1990 is widely regarded as the least spectacular World Cup ever, with a record-low goals-per-game average. Most teams relied heavily on defensive play and hard tackling, as well as aggressive intimidation of the referee. In the knock-out stage of the cup, many teams would "play it safe" for 120 minutes and try their luck in the Penalty Shooutout, rather than risk going forward. Runners-up Argentina was the prime example of this trend, taking the silver medals by scoring only 5 goals in 7 games. World Champions West Germany was one of the few teams to choose an attacking style of play.

Venues

• Stadio Olimpico, Roma - 81,000 [R1,R2,QF,F matches]
• Stadio San Paolo, Napoli - 74,000 [R1,R2,QF,SF matches]
• Stadio Delle Alpi, Torino - 68,000 [R1,R2,SF matches]
• Stadio San Nicola, Bari - 56,000 [R1,R2,3P matches]
• Stadio Artemio Franchi, Firenze - 41,000 [R1,QF matches]
• Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milano - 75,000 [R1,R2,QF matches]
• Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genova - 35,000 [R1,R2 matches]
• Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna - 39,000 [R1,R2 matches]
• Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, Verona - 42,000 [R1,R2 matches]
• Stadio Friuli, Udine - 38,000 [R1 matches]
• Stadio Sant'Elia, Cagliari - 40,000 [R1 matches]
• Stadio Della Favorita Palermo - 36,000 [R1 matches]

First round

Group A

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Italy 6 3 3 0 0 4 0 Czechoslovakia 4 3 2 0 1 6 3 Austria 2 3 1 0 2 2 3 USA 0 3 0 0 3 2 8

Italy 1 - 0 Austria USA 1 - 5 Czechoslovakia Italy 1 - 0 USA Austria 0 - 1 Czechoslovakia Austria 2 - 1 USA Italy 2 - 0 Czechoslovakia

Group B

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Cameroon 4 3 2 0 1 3 5 Romania 3 3 1 1 1 4 3 Argentina 3 3 1 1 1 3 2 USSR 2 3 1 0 2 4 4

Argentina 0 - 1 Cameroon USSR 0 - 2 Romania Argentina 2 - 0 USSR Cameroon 2 - 1 Romania Cameroon 0 - 4 USSR Argentina 1 - 1 Romania

Group C

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Brazil 6 3 3 0 0 4 1 Costa Rica 4 3 2 0 1 3 2 Scotland 2 3 1 0 2 2 3 Sweden 0 3 0 0 3 3 6

Brazil 2 - 1 Sweden Costa Rica 1 - 0 Scotland Brazil 1 - 0 Costa Rica Sweden 1 - 2 Scotland Sweden 1 - 2 Costa Rica Brazil 1 - 0 Scotland

Group D

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA West Germany 5 3 2 1 0 10 3 Yugoslavia 4 3 2 0 1 6 5 Colombia 3 3 1 1 1 3 2 UAE 0 3 0 0 3 2 11

UAE 0 - 2 Colombia West Germany 4 - 1 Yugoslavia Yugoslavia 1 - 0 Colombia West Germany 5 - 1 UAE West Germany 1 - 1 Colombia Yugoslavia 4 - 1 UAE

Group E

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Spain 5 3 2 1 0 5 2 Belgium 4 3 2 0 1 6 3 Uruguay 3 3 1 1 1 2 3 South Korea 0 3 0 0 3 1 6

Belgium 2 - 0 South Korea Uruguay 0 - 0 Spain South Korea 1 - 3 Spain Belgium 3 - 1 Uruguay South Korea 0 - 1 Uruguay Belgium 1 - 2 Spain

Group F

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA England 4 3 1 2 0 2 1 Netherlands 3 3 0 3 0 2 2 Ireland 3 3 0 3 0 2 2 Egypt 2 3 0 2 1 1 2

England 1 - 1 Ireland Netherlands 1 - 1 Egypt England 0 - 0 Netherlands Ireland 0 - 0 Egypt England 1 - 0 Egypt Ireland 1 - 1 Netherlands

Round of sixteen

June 23, 1990	June 24, 1990
Cameroon 2 - 1 (AET) Colombia Czechoslovakia 4 - 1 Costa Rica	Brazil 0 - 1 Argentina West Germany 2 - 1 Netherlands
June 25, 1990	June 26, 1990
Ireland 0 - 0 (5 - 4 PKs) Romania Italy 2 - 0 Uruguay	Spain 1 - 2 (AET) Yugoslavia England 1 - 0 (AET) Belgium

Quarterfinals

June 30, 1990	July 1, 1990
Yugoslavia 0 - 0 (2 - 3 PKs) Argentina Italy 1 - 0 Ireland	West Germany 1 - 0 Czechoslovakia England 3 - 2 (AET) Cameroon

Semifinals

July 3, 1990	July 4, 1990
West Germany 1 - 1 (4 - 3 PKs) England	Italy 1 - 1 (3 - 4 PKs) Argentina

Third place match

July 7, 1990

Italy 2 - 1 England

Final

July 8, 1990

West Germany 1 - 0 Argentina

Firsts

• For the first time, both World Cup semifinals had been decided by penalty shootouts.
• The tournament marks the first time a World Cup tournament has ever hit such a low goals-per-game average. There were 115 goals, and, taking account of extra time when applicable, 4920 minutes of play - which means 1 goal every 42.7 minutes, or only 2.1 goals for every 90-minute game.
• First appearance of the United Arab Emirates, and first appearance of the United States after a 40-year absence. Both teams were dismissed in group play.

The final alone had several firsts:

• For the first time a team reached three World Cup finals in a row: Germany had already lost the finals in 1982 and 1986. This feat was later repeated by Brazil in 1994, 1998 and 2002 with better results: Two titles out of three finals.
• It was the first rematch of a preceding final: The World Cup 1986 already saw Argentina and Germany in the final, only with a different winner.
• It was the first World Cup final that had more than one player of a team sent off: Two Argentinian players saw the red card.
• For the first time, the losing team did not score a goal: Germany won by a penalty in the 85th minute shot by Andreas Brehme after a heavily disputed foul on Rudi Völler.

Lasts

• This would be the last World Cup in which goalkeepers were allowed to pick up direct backpasses from teammates. The backpass rule was in use from the 1994 tournament in order to make it harder for teams to time-waste.
• This was the last World Cup in which four teams' countries existed as political entities: West Germany joined with East Germany shortly after the tournament, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Yugoslavia dissolved into the nations Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro (which retained the name Yugoslavia until 2002), and the USSR, which split into Russia and fourteen smaller states with the fall of the Communist regime, although the former Soviet states fielded a CIS team through the 1992 European Championship.