MOSCOW: With the 2018 World Cup kicking off on June 14, AFP Sport takes a look at past World Cups, starting here from 1966 back to the inaugural tournament in 1930:
Football returned to the country that gave the world the game 103 years earlier – England.
The England team under the tactically astute Alf Ramsey advanced in solid if unspectacular style to the semi-finals, where they faced a Eusebio-inspired Portugal who had eliminated an ageing Brazilian side with a 3-1 victory in the group stage.
Two brilliant efforts by Manchester United’s Bobby Charlton put paid to the Portuguese 2-1 at Wembley.
West Germany, coaxed by new find Franz Beckenbauer, defeated the Soviet Union at Goodison Park to take their place at the home of football for the final.
Helmut Haller put the Germans ahead but Geoff Hurst equalised before half-time. Martin Peters looked to have clinched the cup for the hosts until Wolfgang Weber snatched a dramatic late equaliser to force extra time in a final for only the second time in history.
Hurst scored twice in the additional period to become the only player to score a World Cup final hat-trick. His second goal was highly controversial, bouncing down off the crossbar and, according to the linesman, over the line.
But the tournament top scorer remained Eusabio with nine goals, including four to rescue Portugal against North Korea after they had trailed 3-0 in the quarter-finals.
Earlier North Korea produced the shock of the tournament, beating Italy 1-0 in the group stage.
Foul play blighted a tournament which saw European teams adopt the defensive “catenaccio” style of play popularised at the time by Inter Milan. It led to a series of bad-tempered ties that overshadowed the finals and deprived the World Cup of Pele who hobbled out of the tournament in only Brazil’s second match.
The tie between Chile and Italy became known as the Battle of Santiago, with two Italians sent off and police storming the pitch to restore order.
Even without Pele, Brazil were too much for England in the quarter-finals and dominated Chile in the semi-finals with Garrincha scoring twice before getting himself sent off.
In the final, Brazil faced Czechoslovakia, who had reached that stage largely on the back of outstanding performances by their goalkeeper Jilhelm Schroiff.
Ironically it was Schroiff’s blunders in the final that helped Brazil to a 3-1 victory and their second successive trophy. Vava became the first player to score in consecutive finals. Brazil created a World Cup record by using only 12 players throughout the whole tournament.
Brazil introduced two new players to the World Cup – a bandy-legged little winger called Manuel Francisco dos Santos, known as Garrincha, and a 17-year-old called Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or more simply, Pele.
Nothing could stand in Brazil’s way. Wales, who along with Northern Ireland made a significant impact in this tournament, did well to limit them to a 1-0 quarter-final win.
France, another revelation, boasted a star striker of their own in Just Fontaine, who was to set an astonishing World Cup scoring record of 13 goals in a single tournament, but they were swept aside 6-3 in the semi-finals as Pele fired in a hat-trick.
Hosts Sweden rode the support of the home fans into the final by beating holders West Germany in the last four. But in the final they were undone by the boys from Brazil, Pele and Vava grabbing two each in a 5-2 win.
At the end of the match, the Swedish crowd gave Pele and the Brazilians a standing ovation.
West Germany returned to the international fold nearly a decade after the end of World War II while Ferenc Puskas-inspired Hungary, who had handed England a historic 6-3 defeat at Wembley prior to the finals, were installed as favourites.
The 1950 group format was abandoned, with a return to the group system followed by knockout quarter- and semi-finals.
The ‘Magic Magyars’ demolished West Germany 8-3 in the opening round, adding to a 9-0 hammering of South Korea.
In the quarter-finals they beat Brazil 4-2 in an ugly tie marked by three red cards.
In the final they faced West Germany again and were soon 2-0 ahead through Puskas and Zoltan Czibor. But the Germans were level within ten minutes and claimed a shock winner five minutes from the end when Helmut Rahn scored his second goal to clinch their first World Cup triumph.
Many Hungarians blamed the brilliant Puskas for the deteat. He inisted on playing despite being unfit, having been injured in the group game against the Germans.
After an enforced break of 12 years, the World Cup resumed in South America – left relatively unscathed by the World War II.
Brazil had prepared the magnificent 200,000-capacity Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for the event, while England made their first World Cup appearance.
It wasn’t a success. Humiliation came in the form of an early exit after a shock 1-0 defeat by the United States.
Teams were divided into four groups and the group winners went through to a final pool, with the pool winner taking the title without playing a final.
Disaster struck Brazil.
The host nation had thrashed Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1 in early matches but stumbled in the decider – a match they needed only to draw against Uruguay to win the title.
Before a world record crowd at the Maracana, Albino Cardosa Friaca put Brazil ahead two minutes after half-time, but goals by tournament top scorer Juan Schiaffino and Alcides Ghiggia maintained Uruguay’s unbeaten record and crowned them world champions for the second time.
With the world on the brink of conflict, France hosted the 1938 World Cup marked by the absence of Austria, under German occupation, and Spain, preoccupied with civil war. England were in conflict with FIFA, and South America, peeved at not being chosen as host after Italy 1934, sent only one representative, Brazil.
Asia was represented for the first time, by Indonesia, playing as the Dutch East Indies, though were quickly on their way home after losing 6-0 to Hungary in the first round.
Having edged Brazil 2-1 in the semis, Italy lifted the trophy for the second tournament in succession, defeating Hungary 4-2 in the final at Colombes, just outside Paris.
In the semis the Hungarians demolished Sweden 5-1, despite conceding a goal after only 30 seconds.
Sixteen teams – 12 from Europe, three South Americans (though not the holders Uruguay) and one from Africa, Egypt – lined up for the finals, which were this time conducted purely on a knockout basis.
Host nation Italy, under the approving gaze of Mussolini, beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 in the final after extra-time.
The Czechs silenced the partisan 50,000 crowd when Antonin Puc scored with just 20 minutes of the match remaining.
They almost added a second when the ball struck a post before Argentine-born Raimundo Orsi scored a late equaliser for Italy.
Italy clinched their first World Cup title when Angelo Schiavio scored the winner in extra time.
Brazil and Argentina, multiple World Cup winners of the future, were both beaten in the first round, meaning they had travelled almost 10,000 miles for just one game.
Just 13 teams took part in the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay, nine from the Americas and four from Europe.
France, Belgium, Romania and Yugoslavia made the two-week Atlantic Ocean odyssey to join the other teams in four groups with the winners contesting the semi-finals.
Yugoslavia did the best of the Europeans nations by reaching the last four where they were beaten 6-1 by Uruguay. In the other semi-final Argentina overwhelmed the United States by an identical scoreline.
Uruguay, backed by a huge home crowd in the Centenario Stadium, beat the Argentines 4-2 in the final after being 2-1 down at half-time.
A public holiday was declared in Uruguay. In Buenos Aires hostile fans attacked the Uruguayan embassy. -- AFP