ON THIS DAY

The day we all hoped football would be coming home! England played Italy in the covid-delayed Euro 2020 final and with the match being played at Wembley all England fans were hoping for a repeat of that day in 1966 when England won in their only other major tournament cup final. It certainly started well with Luke Shaw putting England in front after just two minutes - but then almost inevitably things went wrong! Italy equalised in the second half and went on to win the penalty shoot-out after the last three England penalty takes all failed to score. The dream was over but sadly the bad news for England didn't stop at the result. In what was described as a day of 'national shame' thousands of ticketless fans, many drunk, caused chaotic disorder in the Olympic Way and stormed turnstiles to gain admission. There was further poor behavior from many fans in the ground and after the match the three England players who missed their penalties - Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka - were racially abused on social media. The disorder saw UEFA order England to stage a home match behind closed doors added to a fine of 100,000 Euros. Worse still though was the reputational damage to the English game and any hopes of winning the vote to stage a World Cup finals in the near future seemed remote indeed.

England started their 1966 World Cup campaign with a disappointing 0-0 draw with Uruguay at Wembley. In that match England fielded nine of the players who would later play in the World Cup final. Jimmy Greaves and Manchester United's John Connelly were the two players who didn't make the final, being replaced by the goalscorers in the final, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.