"This isn't the first time England have qualified for a World Cup without conceding a goal. They did the same ahead of Italia 90 but three of their six group games were 0-0 draws and they might not have qualified had Poland's Rysard Tarasiewicz scored in the last minute of their final game in Chorzow. Instead his heatseeker hit the crossbar and England were through."
"Plenty of other sides have won all their games while conceding the odd goal, including Erling Haaland's Norway en route to the men's finals tournament next year. Possibly the most spectacular performance came from Germany Women before the 1995 World Cup, a campaign that doubled up as qualification for Euro 95. These were their results: Switzerland (A) 5-0 Wales (H) 12-0 Wales (A) 12-0 Croatia (A) 7-0 Croatia (H) 8-0 Switzerland (H) 11-0"
England won all eight European qualifying matches without conceding a goal. England previously recorded a goalless qualifying run ahead of Italia 90, where three group games were 0-0 and a late Polish shot struck the crossbar. The scope is limited to European qualification and teams that played at least five matches. Under that definition, England are the first men's European team to achieve a perfect qualifying record with no goals conceded. Four women's teams have achieved the same, including England's Lionesses in 2023, who scored 80 goals in 10 matches and conceded none. Germany Women produced a notably dominant 1995 qualifying campaign with multiple large victories.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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