A study by a company linked to a British platform indicates that after Spain and France, the England team is the favorite to win the 2026 World Cup, with an 11.8% chance. The team led by German Thomas Tuchel is in group L, alongside Croatia, Ghana and Panama.
Despite the power of English football, local fans always wonder about the team’s chances of lifting the champion’s cup again. Among World Cup winners, the queue time of the “English Team”, sixty years, is no more uncomfortable than that of the Uruguayans, who won the competition for the second and last time in 1950.
The 1966 World Cup, the only one to date that crowned British football, entered history through the back door. The competition is the one that has received the largest number of labels: “the Cup of shame”, “the scandalous Cup”, “the suspicious Cup” or “the Cup of violence”. To this day, the performance of referees is questioned. The then president of FIFA, the Englishman Stanley Rous, would also have interfered in favor of the Queen’s team. The country’s only achievement in the world championships ended up being overshadowed by the judges’ errors and the violence in the matches.
The home team did not play once away from Wembley, which sparked protests from the opposing delegations. England, coached by Alf Ramsey, had great players. In the very final, against Germany, the team was selected as follows: Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Jack Charlton, Wilson, Cohen and Stiles; Ball and Peters; Bobby Charlton, Hurst and Hunt.
England’s 1966 World Cup campaign
England 0x0 Uruguay – group stage
England 2×0 Mexico – group stage
England 2×0 France – group stage
England 1×0 Argentina – quarter-finals
England 2×1 Portugal – semi-final
England 4×2 Germany – final
The World Cup final was played on July 30th with the presence of 93 thousand people at Wembley. To this day, it is the only World Cup final played on a Saturday. It was up to Queen Elizabeth to present the Jules Rimet cup to the captain of the winning team.
In normal time, the game ended in a 2-2 draw. In the 11th minute of the first stage of extra time, one of the most controversial moments in the history of the World Cup took place. Hurst took a shot from inside the penalty area, the ball hit the crossbar, bounced on the ground, apparently over the line, and returned to the field. Referee Gottfried Dienst, from Switzerland, rushed to consult the linesman Tofik Bakhramov, from the Soviet Union, who confirmed the goal, which is still discussed exhaustively today. The home team scored the fourth, again with Hurst: 4 to 2. Captain Bobby Moore received the cup Jules Rimet from the hands of Queen Elizabeth, in a triumph that will complete six decades.
*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Jovem Pan.
