1958 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 8

The three teams in this group played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner Northern Ireland qualified for the sixth FIFA World Cup held in Sweden.

The 15 January 1958 fixture of Italy at Northern Ireland was originally scheduled for 4 December 1957 but heavy fog in London prevented the referee (Istvan Zsolt, manager of the Budapest Opera House) from arriving for the match in time. The fixture was postponed but the match continued as a friendly, and ended in a 2-2 draw and a riot as the crowd (infuriated by the postponement and quite rough play from some Italian players) invaded the pitch. The 'friendly' match was dubbed the 'Battle of Belfast'.^[1] Danny Blanchflower, Northern Ireland captain at the time, helped save the situation by ordering his players to escort their Italian counterparts off the field while the police dealt with the crowd.^[2]

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Qualification
1	Northern Ireland	4	2	1	1	6	3	2.000	5	Qualification to 1958 FIFA World Cup	—	2–1	3–0
2	Italy	4	2	0	2	5	5	1.000	4		1–0	—	3–0
3	Portugal	4	1	1	2	4	7	0.571	3		1–1	3–0	—

Source: FIFA^[3]

Matches

16 January 1957

Portugal	1 – 1	Northern Ireland
Vasques 24'	Report	Bingham 6'

Attendance: 33,000

Referee: Lequesne (France)

25 April 1957

Italy	1 – 0	Northern Ireland
Cervato 3'	Report

Attendance: 70,000

Referee: Guigue (France)

1 May 1957

Northern Ireland	3 – 0	Portugal
Casey 22' Simpson 60' McIlroy 70' (pen.)	Report

Attendance: 35,000

Referee: Phillips (Scotland)

26 May 1957

Portugal	3 – 0	Italy
Vasques 41' Teixeira 81' Matateu 87'	Report

Attendance: 37,000

Referee: Treichel (West Germany)

22 December 1957

Italy	3 – 0	Portugal
Gratton 36', 72' Pivatelli 84'	Report

Attendance: 50,000

Referee: Damiani (Yugoslavia)

15 January 1958

Northern Ireland	2 – 1	Italy
McIlroy 13' Cush 28'	Report	Da Costa 56'

Attendance: 50,000

Referee: Zsolt (Hungary)

References

^ Brodie, Malcolm (5 December 2007). "Down Memory Lane: Battle of Belfast was far from a golden moment - International, Football". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
^ "FIFA Fact Sheet: History of the FIFA World Cup (TM) Preliminary Competition" (PDF). FIFA. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
^ "1958 FIFA World Cup Chile Preliminaries". FIFA. 28 March 2013. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2022.

External links

[1] Brodie, Malcolm (5 December 2007). "Down Memory Lane: Battle of Belfast was far from a golden moment - International, Football". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 2012-06-11.

[2] "FIFA Fact Sheet: History of the FIFA World Cup (TM) Preliminary Competition" (PDF). FIFA. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-09.

[3] "1958 FIFA World Cup Chile Preliminaries". FIFA. 28 March 2013. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2022.

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