Memory lane: The Panini sticker collection of Ireland's '94 World Cup squad

Try not to weep with the intense nostalgia coming your way.

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This article is a part of The42′s USA 94 Week, a special series of commemorative features to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Fifa World Cup. To read more from the series, click here >

ANY WORLD CUP worth it’s weight in gold would not be complete without a Panini sticker album.

Fortunes worth of pocket money have been spent trying to complete them down through the years and 1994 was no different as Ireland prepared for it’s second successive World Cup appearance under Jack Charlton.

The Boys in Green would make it through to the knockout stages, navigating a tricky Group E with Italy, Norway and Mexico before exiting at the hands of the Netherlands with a disappointing 2-0 defeat in Orlando.

It is a tournament which floods back giddy memories of wonderful 1990s nostalgia; Ray Houghton’s goal to beat the Italians, Paul McGrath’s heroic performance at the back, John Aldridge’s furious argument with a Fifa official on the touchline… the unbearable heat.

Panini actually commissioned two separate sticker albums in 1994. One was named the ‘Panini World Cup Story’ which detailed previous tournaments and the other being the more traditional iteration, solely dedicated to the competition in the United States that summer.

There were 444 stickers to collect, two pages per team — you can cast your mind back to our Irish heroes below.