Eleven days into those Finals, at a Group B fixture in Palo Alto, a Russian player managed a scoring feat that set a World Cup record.

Russia had already lost to Brazil and Sweden before they took on Cameroon to salvage a bit of pride. The Africans had been the surprise packet at Italia '90, winning through to the quarter-finals where they were just eight minutes away from beating England.

They still had Roger Milla, a sprightly 42, in their squad and he entered the action at the start of the second half against Pavel Sadyrin's Russian side.

By that time Oleg Salenko had already registered a hat-trick. Two players ran into each other to let him in for the first on 16 minutes, the second was a tap-in on 41 and the third a dubious penalty a minute before the break.

After Milla had quickly cut the deficit to 3-1, Salenko notched a couple more on 73 and 75 minutes to become the first player in World Cup Finals history to score five goals in one match. Then Radchenko's late effort completed the scoring at 6-1 in Russia's favour.

But they finished third in the group and were out of the competition.