England at the FIFA World Cup
A month later, England welcomed Ireland to Maine Road, and it began well for the home side as Jack Rowley scored inside six minutes.
England were already 6–0 up, thanks to Jack Froggatt, two for Stan Pearson, Mortensen and a second from Rowley, by the time Ireland struck back through Samuel Smyth after 55 minutes.
With the top two from the group qualifying, both teams were guaranteed progression to the finals, and the game was solely for the honour of winning the British Home Championship, and the seeding advantage to be enjoyed upon reaching Brazil.
[citation needed] Their troubles began four days later when they faced the Americans in Belo Horizonte, as Joe Gaetjens scored the only goal of the match to give the United States an unlikely victory, which has gone down as one of the World Cup's greatest upsets.
Ivor Allchurch gave the home side a half-time lead, but England scored four within eight minutes of the restart with two each for Dennis Wilshaw and Nat Lofthouse.
Two goals from Broadis and one from Lofthouse gave England a 3–1 lead just after the hour, but Henri Coppens hit back four minutes later before Anoul levelled the scores again.
Four months before the World Cup, Manchester United players Roger Byrne, Duncan Edwards, David Pegg and Tommy Taylor all died as a result of the Munich air disaster.
England did not concede a goal in any of their first four matches at the tournament, starting with a 0–0 draw in the opening game against former champions Uruguay, followed by 2–0 wins over France and Mexico to see them finish top of their group and qualify for the quarter-finals.
[citation needed] There they faced Argentina, in a very fierce game that saw Argentinian Antonio Rattín sent off by German referee Rudolf Kreitlein.
Geoff Hurst scored the only goal of the game, and only his second in international football, to give England the win and a place in the semi-finals, where they faced Portugal.
In the additional period, Hurst scored twice more, the first crashing down off the crossbar before being given by linesman Tofiq Bahramov, who controversially deemed the ball to have entirely crossed the line.
[18] By winning three and drawing three, England qualified for Italia '90, the second World Cup to be held in Italy, scoring ten goals and conceding none.
Because of the rise of hooliganism among English fans at matches in European competition, England's group games were scheduled to be played on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.
England went into their final game with San Marino knowing they would need a seven-goal victory and for Poland to beat the Netherlands in the other match in order to qualify.
[26] Their second match saw England lose 2–1 to Romania; despite an 81st-minute equaliser from Michael Owen, Dan Petrescu scored a winner shortly before injury time.
In their final group game, England defeated Colombia 2–0 in the decisive match, thanks to goals from midfielders Darren Anderton and David Beckham.
In the last ever game in the original Wembley Stadium, (which closed after the match) England played Germany, losing 1–0, the only goal scored by Dietmar Hamann.
The group featured other home nations in Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as Poland (who had eliminated England the last time the World Cup took place in Germany), Azerbaijan and Austria.
England won eight of the 10 games, and qualified as group winners, in front of Poland, despite drawing to Austria in Vienna, and losing to Northern Ireland in Belfast.
[39] In the last 16 stage, a free kick from David Beckham gave England a 1–0 win against Ecuador and reach the quarter-finals, where they faced Portugal.
Ricardo saved from Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher; the only England player to convert his penalty was Owen Hargreaves.
[43] England eventually qualified for the next round by beating Slovenia 1–0, but only as runners up to the United States, thereby meaning they would be drawn against favourites Germany.
In the second round match, Germany took the lead after 20 minutes after goalkeeper Manuel Neuer played the ball down the pitch to Miroslav Klose, who opened the scoring.
Ironically, despite this earlier opposition to new goal-line technology, Sepp Blatter later said that it should be introduced after a Ukrainian goal against England at UEFA Euro 2012 had been ruled out.
[48] The draw for the finals pitched England against Italy and Uruguay, both former world champions, which meant that it was the first time three previous winners were drawn in the same group, along with Costa Rica.
[63] England lost again to Belgium in the third place play-off, thanks to goals from Thomas Meunier and Eden Hazard, despite an Eric Dier shot being cleared off the line by Toby Alderweireld.
[65] In qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, England were drawn in UEFA Group I along with Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra and San Marino.
[71] They were then held to a 1–1 draw in the return match against Poland at the Kazimierz Górski National Stadium in Warsaw, substitute Damian Szymański scoring a 92nd-minute equaliser after Harry Kane had given England the lead midway through the second half.
[75] England beat San Marino 10–0, their record victory in a competitive match, to finish top of the group, six points clear of Poland.
[103] Arthur Ellis, who was a linesman for the 1950 decisive match, is part of an elite group of referees who have been called up for three consecutive World Cups (1950, 1954 and 1958).
