It’s always something: a brief history of England at the World Cup since 1966

The World Cup has always been deeply generous to the English. Every four years it brings us a glorious shared experience of defeat: an instant national archetype of disappointment and despair. England last knew triumph in 1966: the English have lived with disaster ever since. 

And it always takes a different form. This time it was a German manager who decided to park the bus when he should have gone for the kill. He sounded the retreat the instant England scored: a gameplan that ensured that the players the opposition most feared barely got a kick. Who needs Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham when you’ve got Dan Burn? And so, with the inevitability of Oedipus slouching towards Thebes, England once again closed in on defeat.

Hifalutin terms for the trivialities of football, I know: but it’s an ineluctable fact that every experience of defeat at a World Cup burns itself into the national psyche. For once we are a united nation. And every time, it requires a different response: fury, sadness, self-loathing, regret, hatred, blame-hunting, submission to caprices of fate, awareness of the fragility of hope, acceptance of human limitations, the need for revenge, the need to howl at the unfairness of life, the perfidy of foreigners and the inadequacies of our own best-beloved favourites.

These archetypal moments are only truly vivid when England reach the World Cup finals and are shared not just by football fans but by everyone else, whether they watched the match or not. So we’ll examine 11 disasters, missing the years of non-qualification – even the one when England needed to beat San Marino by seven goals and went a goal down after eight seconds. What we’re left with is a series of inherited memories, passed on from one generation to the next: what German psychologists call Erberinnerung.

1970: The poisoner

Gordon Banks’s save from Pelé at this tournament is still remembered as the best ever, but Banks was taken ill and couldn’t make the quarter-final against West Germany. England led 2-0 – and lost 2-3. Banks’s stand-in, Peter Bonetti, was arguably at fault for all three. 

Erberinnerung: Banks poisoned by a malicious German. The understudy who became a black hole.

1982: Anglia invicta

England didn’t lose a single game but still lost. Absurdly, the tournament had a second group phase. England drew 0-0 with both West Germany and Spain: endless barren acres of time in which the England team showed everything except finesse. 

Erberinnerung: Foreign plot against English football. Glorious mediocrity. No flair please, we’re English.

1986: La Mano de Dios

England played Argentina in the quarter-finals and were holding them. Diego Maradona beat the England goalkeeper Peter Shilton by bipping the ball into the net with his hand. He then scored a goal of breathtaking brilliance while England, in a line quoted by Brian Glanville, were “like a man who’d had his wallet stolen”. 

Erberinnerung: Cheating foreigners. Wilfully blind officials. Genius forgiving all. Perhaps. 

1990: Gazza’s tears

England had been expected to do poorly, but, inspired by Paul Gascoigne, they reached the semi-finals and were 1-1 with West Germany after 90 minutes. In the first half of extra time, Gascoigne was booked and would miss the final if England got there. Instead of making sure they did, he wept tears of remorse and self-pity. England then lost the shootout.

Erberinnerung: Weeping for the inexorability of fate. Or of German efficiency. The sweet taste of nearly but not quite. 

1998: The fop and his folly

In the round of 16, England and Argentina were level at 2-2 at the start of the second half. Argentina captain Diego Simeone first felled David Beckham then ruffled his haircut. Beckham, face down, landed a feeble Charleston kick; Simeone went down as if shot; Beckham was sent off; England lost the shootout. 

Erberinnerung: Beckham’s haircut. Beckham hanged in effigy in his sarong. 

2002: Did he mean it?

England were leading 1-0 in the quarter-finals against Brazil. Ronaldinho set up Rivaldo for the equaliser and, just after half-time, took a free-kick from nearly 40 yards. It sailed over the head of England goalkeeper David Seaman. Some said it was a fluke. I was in the stadium in a direct line between Ronaldinho’s shoulder blades, the ball and the goal. He meant it all right. 

Erberinnerung: Success you could almost taste. Dodgy keeper. Jammy foreigner. No accounting for genius. 

2006: Nudge nudge, wink wink

Wayne Rooney was tipped to win the World Cup for England; instead, in the quarter-finals against Portugal, he was sent off after stamping on a fallen opponent. The referee was persuaded to send him off by Rooney’s club team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo then winked at the camera. 

Erberinnerung: Stupid boy. Weak ref. Taunting foreigner. Foreigners who play football in a way we English are too forthright to contemplate. 

2010: Rache!

England, booed after a goalless draw with Algeria, still made the round of 16 but had to play Germany. They were 2-1 down when Frank Lampard hammered a shot onto the crossbar. It clearly bounced over the line, but wasn’t given. Germany scored twice more from counter-attacks and believed the decision was revenge for the first goal England scored in extra time in 1966, the one given by the “Russian linesman”. 

Erberinnerung: The inscrutable working of fate. The unfairness of life. And referees. 

2014: Deserts of vast eternity

England were finished after two matches, losing to Italy and Uruguay. They then drew 0-0 with Costa Rica and finished the group stage with a single point. 

Erberinnerung: Near-total ineptitude. A nightmare: running through treacle for the train you mustn’t miss. 

2018: Trigger-freeze

England were leading 1-0 in the semi-final against Croatia and at last – at last! – the final beckoned. But Harry Kane and Jesse Lingard missed chances, Croatia equalised and then got the winner. England did everything right apart from scoring. 

Erberinnerung: Nothing so terrifying as the prospect of victory. 

2022: Harry, Harry, Harry

England were going toe to toe with France in the quarter-finals; France took the lead for the second time but England had an 84th-minute penalty. Kane blazed it over the bar. 

Erberinnerung: He never misses. Until now. Fallible hero. Gallant failure. And above all, the lethal nature of hope.

Photographs by Jeff Roberson/AP; Neil Leifer /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images; Mirrorpix via Getty Images; Daniel Motz/Alamy; Bernd Wende/Ullstein Bild via Getty Images; Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images; Cameron Spencer/Getty Images; Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images; Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images; Cameron Spencer/Getty Images; Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images; Julian Finney/Getty Images