1966 World Cup England

The 1966 Football World Cup was hosted by England, the country that invented football.

The competition format remained as in 1962 with 16 teams in four groups. Before the tournament the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition. After a nation wide hunt the trophy was discovered in some bushes in London by a dog named Pickles.

Although setting new attendance records the tournament was quite defensive with relatively few goals.  Brazil, the reigning champions were eliminated at the group stage.

In the quarter-finals Portugal staged an amazing comeback from 3 goals down to North Korea with Eusebio scoring four goals.  Hosts England defeated Argentina and Argentina's Antonio Rattin had the dubious distinction of being the first player sent off in a senior international football match at Wembley.

Both semi-finals finished 2-1 as did the 3rd place play-off

Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final with a crowd of 97,000.  West Germany went ahead after 12 minutes but England soon equalised.. England took the lead in the second half only for West Germany to equalise with a minute to go with a goal which England claimed should have disallowed for hand-ball.

In extra time England scored a controversial goal that hit the crossbar deemed to have crossed the line by the referee. However England put the matter beyond doubt when Hurst netted his third in the 120th minute, making him the only player to score a hatrick in the final.

Top Scorer

9 Goals - Eusebio (Portugal)

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