1966: Ramsey's vision for England

1966: Ramsey's vision for England
When Alf Ramsey said, on taking over from Walter Winterbottom as manager, that England "would win the [FIFA] World Cup" in 1966 most people thought he was mad. In four previous attempts England had never got past the quarter-finals, had won only four matches and one of their six defeats had come, embarrassingly, at the hands of the United States.

Pickles finds the cup
However, before England could attempt to win the World Cup they had to find it first. Farcically stolen from an exhibition and held for ransom the Jules Rimet trophy was finally recovered from a South London garden by a dog named Pickles.

Qualifying controversy
As usual, qualifying had produced both controversy and surprise. Mass withdrawals in the Afro-Asia section in protest at being allocated only one place in the finals allowed North Korea to qualify by beating Australia in a play-off. Meanwhile, Czechoslovakia, beaten finalists in 1962, were ousted by Portugal, who were appearing in their first finals.

Ill-tempered games
The world waited for a feast of football and - eventually - one arrived, but not before a lacklustre opening phase had thrown up a series of ill-tempered, defensively dominated matches. England had an uninspiring passage to the quarter-finals. A frustrating 0-0 draw against Uruguay was followed by an unimaginative 2-0 win against Mexico. Another 2-0 win, against France, was even less impressive. Roger Hunt scored twice but his first looked offside and the second was scored after Nobby Stiles had felled Jacques Simon.

Irrepressible West Germany
Meanwhile, the West Germans were displaying every aspect of their footballing personality. Irrepressible in a 5-0 defeat of Switzerland, Helmut Schön's team showed their negative side in a 0-0 draw with an ill-disciplined Argentina and then their powers of recovery, battling back from 1-0 down to beat Spain 2-1.
The biggest surprise of the tournament - and probably in the history of the World Cup - came with North Korea's 1-0 win over Italy, a result that put the two-time champions on an early flight home to face the wrath of a furious nation.

Hungary oust Brazil
The best match was an exhilarating encounter between the holders, Brazil, and Hungary. In a superb match of 56 goal attempts the Hungarians, inspired by Florian Albert and Ferenc Bene, deservedly ended Brazil's long unbeaten run with a 3-1 victory.

Pelé returns
Brazil made nine changes for their final game against Portugal including a recall for a less than fit Pelé, who had been injured after scoring in a 2-0 win over Bulgaria. However, Portugal were worthy 3-1 winners, with Eusébio scoring twice, although they also showed their dark side by hacking Pelé out of the game.

Rattin dismissed
The atmosphere was scarcely improved by the quarter-finals. Uruguay had two men sent off in their 4-0 defeat by West Germany, while Argentina - branded "animals" by a furious Ramsey - had their captain, Antonio Rattin, dismissed in an equally foul-tempered 1-0 defeat by England. Elsewhere, the Soviet Union, with Lev Yashin at last living up to his reputation in goal, held firm for a 2-1 win after profiting from two errors by Hungary's keeper Jozsef Gelei.

Eusébio rampant
However, the most exciting quarter-final was Portugal's 5-3 win over North Korea. The Koreans amazingly stormed into a 3-0 lead before Eusébio almost single-handedly rescued the day. A brilliant individual goal and a penalty made it 3-2 at half time and Eusébio added two more in the second half - including another penalty - before setting up José Augusto for the fifth. With Pelé's demise, Eusébio was being hailed as the greatest player in the world.

Beautiful game
In contrast to much of what had gone before, Portugal's semi-final against England was a breath of fresh air. There was hardly a foul as the hosts, at last breaking out of their shackles, built up a 2-0 lead, courtesy of two Bobby Charlton goals. It was a marvellous and compelling match and Portugal made the hosts sweat after Eusebio scored a late penalty.

Beckenbauer strikes
In the other semi-final West Germany beat the Soviet Union 2-1 with goals by Helmut Haller and the 20-year-old Franz Beckenbauer, after the Russians had Igor Chislenko sent off.

Tense final
The eighth World Cup final, at Wembley Stadium on 30 July, was one of the best and most tense in the competition's history. The Germans took the early initiative when Haller scored in the 12th minute, but Geoff Hurst headed home a free-kick from his captain Bobby Moore to equalise five minutes later.

England ahead
The game ebbed and flowed until, with just 12 minutes left, Martin Peters latched on to a deflection to fire England ahead. But then, with the match in added time the Germans won a free-kick and from the resultant melée in the box Wolfgang Weber made it 2-2.

Superior fitness
England's superior fitness - personified by the tireless running of Alan Ball on the wing - began to pay off and 12 minutes into extra time a shot by Hurst rebounded down off the crossbar. Thirty-six years later there are still arguments about whether the ball crossed the line but the goal stood and England were ahead. Finally, in the dying seconds and with the Germans throwing everything forward Moore booted the ball clear to Hurst, who smashed the ball into the roof of the net.

Ramsey's dream comes true
England had won 4-2, Hurst became the first player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final and Ramsey could sit back with an enigmatic smile as his outlandish prediction came spectacularly true.