England Flashback: Vs Germany at the World Cup

And so, on Sunday, Germany will join Argentina as the team we have most faced at the World Cup, as it’ll be the fifth time the two teams have met.* So I figure, now is as good a time as any to have a look back at the previous encounters, nearly all of which were explosive.

1966 World Cup Final.
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Obviously, it all started here, with England’s first, and to date, only, World Cup victory. It was, I think its fair to say, a bit of a cracker. England won 4-2, after Extra Time and a controversial hat-trick from Sir Geoff Hurst. Franz Beckenbauer was just a 17 year old who showed a lot of promise. He’d get his revenge.

(West) Germany opened the scoring after a defensive blunder, Geoff Hurst equalised after a quick Bobby Moore Free Kick. Martin Peters seemed to score the winning goal after a Hurst shot was blocked and fell into his path, but right at the death, a goalmouth scramble gave Germany a draw. To extra time. Alf Ramsey sent his troops out with the words “You’ve beaten them once, now go and do it again”. They did. Geoff Hurst scored a controversial on the line/over the line strike, before finishing the game off drilling it into the top corner. We were World Champions, but it wouldn’t be the last we’d see of the Germans.

1970 World Cup Quarter Final.

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Alot of people will tell you the 1970 World Cup team was even better than the 1966 team, but history doesn’t bear this out. They lost to Brazil in the group, which led them onto a meeting with the Germans in the knockout stages.
There were a few things that made the difference in 1970. Franz Beckenbauer had gone from good to great. Gordon Banks had got food poisoning. It was really hot (though it was for the Germans as well). And Alf didn’t understand how best to use subs.
This was the first World Cup with substitutions, and that cost England, ultimately. Bobby Charlton was dragged off too soon, Peter Bonetti had an afternoon to forget, and England crashed out.

1982 World Cup Group Stage

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A second round match, and a goalless draw (there was a second group stage at the complicated 1982 World Cup). Nothing really to write home about.

1990 World Cup Semi Final.

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An absolute classic, this thought. England, Germany, the Semi-Final. England had started the campaign in a quite mediocre fashion, but had quickly stepped up the pace. They’d had a bit of luck on the way undoubtedly – 2 penalties against Cameroon, David Platt’s last gasp effort against Belguim, but we matched the Germans over 120 minutes here. Germany opened the scoring with a freak goal, which looped over Shilton’s head, but Gary lineker got a scrappy one back. Waddle hit the post. Gazza came close. So did the Germans. Gazza got booked and would miss the final, but was immense anyway. It went to Penalties, where of course, Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle missed, and England were out. Germany went on to win it.

*This is playing it the FIFA way that Germany are the heirs to West Germany. We’ve never actually played the United Germany at the World Cup.