England national football team reached the top of world football in this World Cup
The England national team has one of the best squads of all time in world football. But if you ask whether they have been able to show the strength of their squad on the field all the time, it can be said that no. The biggest example of this is that despite participating in 15 World Cups, England, which has featured many of the most famous players in world football, has only managed to reach the finals of football’s most prestigious competition once. It is true that they won the final and lifted the world title, but since then, England have never made it to the finals of the World Cup.
Not only that, but if we look at the history of the last 38 years, England has managed to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup only twice. England participated in the World Cup for the first time in 1950. In the World Cup held in Brazil, England was eliminated in the group stage as the eighth place. But England continued to participate in subsequent World Cups. England reached the quarter-finals of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, but failed to make it past the group stage at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Later, England became the champions for the first time in the fifth World Cup in which England participated, namely in 1964, which was held at their home country.
English football legend Bobby Moore was the captain of the England national team at that time. It was the World Cup where legends like Gordon Banks, Ray Wilson, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton and Ron Flowers lined up for England. Brazil, the 1958 and 1962 World Cup winners, came to England aiming for their World Cup hat-trick. Another major power in the 1966 World Cup was West Germany. In the group stage, England were drawn in Group 1 alongside Uruguay, Mexico and France. England topped the group after a draw against Uruguay in the first match but won both of their subsequent games.
After defeating Argentina in the quarter-finals and Portugal in the semi-finals, England faced West Germany in the final. Football pundits widely reckoned that defeating the mighty West Germany would be a huge challenge for England. The game ended in a thrilling tie at fulltime. The game went into extra time. England then fought back determined not to lose in front of a crowd of 96,924 at Wembley Stadium in London. Two more goals in extra time resulted in England defeating West Germany 4–2 in the match, lifting the trophy in front of their home crowd.
