The match finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, and there were no goals in extra time, and so it went to a penalty shoot out, with England shooting first. Both teams scored their first three penalties (with Lineker, Beardsley and Platt finding the net for England). Then, horror of horrors, Psycho Pearce's penalty was saved and Germany scored their 4th, meaning England had to score their final penalty. Up stepped Chris Waddle and blazed it over the bar, and they were out.
Tragedy. Devastation. To have come so close, a generation after the '66 heroes.
And over the years, the story was added to the many, and became part of England football folklore, even immortalised in song:
And I still see that tackle by Moore
And when Lineker scored
The second of those lines refers to Lineker's equalizer in that match.
However, that's not what I remember the match for now, not what breaks my heart. It's the rash challenge by Gazza in the first period of extra time. The immediate realisation that the referee was going to book him, and what it meant. Having a picked up a booking in the second round match against Belgium, this would be his second, and hence he would miss the next game. The eyes started to fill with tears. Lineker tried to console him, and turned to the bench saying, "have a word". Maybe this was the turning point. Who knows.
I remember spending my 1990 summer holiday (and a pretty special one that was too) proudly wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Gazza in tears and the caption 'There'll always be an England'.
And here we are, thirty years of hurt later, but still dreaming.