19 years ago, this happened! (Video)
Google the term ‘Argentina 0’ … Guess the first result that comes up? It’s not anything recent, so that discounts Germany’s 4-0 thrashing of them at the recent 2010 World Cup. Enough rambling, its Argentina 0 Colombia 5!
We’re going to go back in time, 5th September 1993 (I was the tender age of just 1). The previous World Cup campaign for Argentina saw them lose in the final to West Germany, a turgid affair for those who remember it and were favourites to top the 1994 World Cup qualifying group. And going into their last game of qualification, they needed to beat Colombia to ensure automatic qualification was theirs, and despite a 2-1 defeat in Colombia previously, the 1991 and 1993 Copa America champions, were expected to win.
However, a team that consisted of the Carlos Valderrama, Faustino Asprilla and Adolfo Valencia stunned the Estadio Monumental in one of the world’s most famous qualification matches.
Argentina missed early chances and were made to pay as Freddy Rincon opened the scoring just before half-time; however what happened after the interval stunned the footballing world.
Asprilla made it 2-0, before a quick fire double, one each from Rincon and Asprilla, ensured a comfortable win was turned into a rout! Argentina’s humiliation was complete when Valencia made it 5-0 with time running out!
Despite no Diego Maradona, Argentina were stunned leading their then manager Alfio Basile to say “I never want to think about that match again. It was a crime against nature, a day when I wanted to dig a hole in the ground and bury myself in it.”
As it turned out the win might have hampered Colombia! They went to the 1994 World Cup as one of the favourites only to fall at the first hurdle, losing to both Romania and the host nation USA in the group stage. Worse was to come when Andres Escobar, on his return to Colombia after the tournament, was shot dead because of an own goal he scored in the defeat to USA.
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