People still talk about Italia ’90 as summer we all fell in love with football

Argentina in the final, and everything that would have come with it.” In a match that ended 1-1 after extra time, Shilton’s critics claim he should have reached Andreas Brehme’s free-kick, wickedly deflected off Paul Parker.

And that he barely sniffed any of the German penalties that night in Turin. They are less voluble about his instinctive save to keep out Jurgen Klinsmann’s header in extra time – stunning reflexes for a 40-year-old keeper.

And he is too polite to point out that David Seaman didn’t get anywhere near six German spot-kicks when history repeated itself in the Euro 96 semi-finals.

In his splendid memoir

Extra Time And Penalties, former BBC correspondent Mike Ingham recalled the colourful late-night retreat from England’s heartbreak in Turin to the Beeb’s bolthole 100 miles away in Milan.

With Shilton’s old rival for England’s No.1 jersey, Ray Clemence, at the wheel, and one of radio’s great voices, Bryon Butler, dozing in the back, Ingham said: “On the outskirts of Milan there were endless traffic lights.

“At every stop, it seemed there was a lady of the night proffering personal services.

“One was particularly persistent and giving the roof of our stationary vehicle an unremitting pounding. Ray had been forced to lower his window to prevent it from steaming up. The thumping woke Bryon from his slumber, just in time to glimpse the backside of our relentless kerbside vendor being pushed through the open window for closer inspection.

“He opened one eye and observed, ‘Well, you could pick up a pimple or two round here’ – and nodded off again.

“He had just seen England flirt with a place in the World Cup final but still managed to deliver a memorable one-liner.”