ON THIS DAY

There can hardly be anything more proudly English than captaining England at Wembley against the Germans but on this day in 1989 the England captain for the schools fixture was one Ryan Giggs - then known by his fathers' surname of Wilson. The Welsh-born player was eligible for England schools as he was at school in England at the time but was not eligible to play for the England senior side.

First international goals from both John Barnes and Mark Hateley gave England a 2-0 friendly victory in Brazil. It was England’s first away victory over Brazil and Brazil’s first defeat at the Maracanã in 27 years while the John Barnes goal was a wondergoal worthy of a Brazilian at his best. Happy days!

Well this sounds a bit like a dream only enjoyed by the keenest of Blackpool fans - the Seasiders beat an Italian side 10-0 when defending a European trophy they had won the previous season. But it really did happen! OK, it was the Anglo-Italian Cup which Blackpool won in 1971 but on 10th June they beat Lanerossi Vicenza 10-0 at Bloomfield Road in their final group match of the 1972 competition. That put them into the final again although this time they were beaten 3-1 by Roma in Rome. Still sounds like a dream though!

The first World Cup finals hosted by a European country saw the first European winners of the competition. Sixteen nations took part in the finals – hosts Italy plus Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. None of the British countries were there – they weren’t members of FIFA and so weren’t eligible to enter the World Cup – and the reigning champions Uruguay didn’t take part either. Uruguay hosted – and won – the first World Cup in 1930 and weren’t too chuffed that only 4 European nations travelled to Uruguay for those finals and so not attending the 1934 finals was Uruguay’s form of protest. No group matches just a straight knock-out competition which saw the 4 non-European nations all eliminated after their first match. In the final in front of around 50,000 at the Stadio Nazionale PNF in Rome on 10th June 1954 hosts Italy became world champions with a 2-1 victory over Czechoslovakia.