The Camp Nou became the center of world football. The Barcelona field welcomed the opening of the Spanish event. Also, this same day the last part of the Alert Plan was activated.
first surprise
In Argentina-Belgium, the European team gave the surprise. Vanderbergh saw to it that the albiceleste led by Maradona ended up losing 0-1.
Some 1.5 billion people followed the ceremony on television. Some 100,000 experienced it in the stadium itself. But far from the spotlight that same day. The ceremony started late and that caused the opening match Argentina-Belgium to start later.
The last to arrive
Northern Ireland was the last team to join the event, in fact, its arrival was around nine o’clock at night, while the opening match was being played.
On the same day, Roberto ‘Dinamita’ joined the Brazilian team in place of the injured Careca.
The Scots spent the first day of the World Cup locked up, so the coach decided to prepare for the first game. At the other extreme is the England team that spent the rest day.
Austrian explanations
The Austrian coach had to give a press conference to justify his team’s refusal to play a warm-up match with Siero. The reasons were the poor condition of the lawn.