Sunday afternoon England take on Germany. A game with so much history, a lot of bad blood and what most English people consider one of the classic match ups along with the auld enemy and Argentina.
Last competitive game the two sides played was in 2001 and the almost legendary 5-1 English win in Munich. The rivalry has a long history going back to 1930, but it never really got going until 1966. On a July afternoon at Wembley an Azerbijani linesman said Geoff Hurst’s shot had cannoned off the crossbar and crossed the goal line, and that was all that mattered.
And England won the World Cup. The Germans (of course) didn’t agree with the linesmen, and to this day feel they were cheated out of the World Cup.
On a slight aside (shinny thing…) the linesman was Tofik Bakhramov and the Azerbaijan national stadium in Baku is named after him. Such is his place in English football legend that when England played a World Cup qualifier there in 2004, England fans visited his grave to pay respects and place flowers on it. Prior to the game there was a ceremony honouring him that was attended by some members of the 1966 team, including Hurst.
Back to Sunday, since 1966 the two sides have met 19 times. Germany have won 12 times, 4 draws and only 5 English wins. Only one of those English wins came in a major tournament, 1-0 win in Charleroi in a very poor game against a bad Germany side during Euro 2000.
The two Semi-final losses in Italia 90 and Euro ’96 live very large in the British psyche. Both were decent games that led to losses on penalties, and all English fans feel it’s time for revenge.
The only question is which pub should I watch the game in?