1966

Host nation: England Games: 32 Goals: 89 (2.78 per match) Dismissals: 5 Venues: 8 Winners: England Top scorer: Eusebio (9 goals)

The 1966 World Cup began farcically – with the stolen Jules Rimet trophy found by a collie called Pickles – and ended controversially, with Geoff Hurst’s ‘goal’ possibly not crossing the line. In between these two events, some decent football was played (particularly by Hungary and Portugal), reputations were made (especially by Eusebio, who top-scored with nine goals) and giants were slain (North Korea 1-0 Italy is still one of the World Cup’s most famous scorelines), before hosts England fulfilled Alf Ramsey’s startling prediction by winning the thing at Wembley.

STAR FACTOR

With Europe dominating the semi-finals, the most conspicuous stars were Gordon Banks, England’s Bobbies (Moore and Charlton), West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and Uwe Seeler and Portugal’s Eusebio (below left) and Mario Coluna. A corporal in the North Korean army, Pak Doo-ik briefly became the most famous player in the world after scoring the winner to eliminate Italy.

WONDER GOALS

It’s hard to top Hurst’s hat-trick goal in the dying seconds of the final. Collecting a pinpoint pass from Moore (left), the West Ham frontman ran towards goal and blasted the ball beyond Hans Tilkowski to make it 4-2 to England. As ITV commentator Huw Johns said: “That is it”.

AGGRO

This World Cup isn’t fondly remembered in Africa, where 31 countries boycotted the competition in disgust over their convoluted qualifying routes, or South America, where Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil blamed their departure on biased, incompetent or corrupt referees. Argentina captain Antonio Rattin’s refusal to be sent off in the last eight against England epitomised their summer of discontent.

THE THRILLERS

It had a game to suit everyone. Purists raved about Hungary’s 3-1 win against Brazil. Romantics were thrilled by North Korea’s group-stage victory over Italy, and their 5-3 quarter-final defeat to Portugal after taking a 3-0 lead. The Three Lions saved their best until last – beating Eusebio’s Portugal 2-1 in a gripping semi, then prevailing in the most dramatic final ever played.

THE FINAL

Hurst, the ‘Russian’ linesman, some people on the pitch – regardless of whether you’re almost bored of hearing about it, you can’t deny it was a belter.

LEGACY

After a finals marred by more violence than some spaghetti Westerns, FIFA instructed referees to protect skilful players. Football’s evolution into something close to a non-contact sport began here.