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When Gareth Southgate’s young England squad embark on their World Cup campaign in Russia next month, they’ll be looking to somehow find a way to end over half a century of hurt for fans of the Three Lions.
Since their lone World Cup victory in 1966, England have played in a further nine tournaments and in each one, they’ve come up short.
The endings have ranged from “glorious failure” - as some observers put it, to shambolic performances that shamed the nation, but regardless of the nature, they’ve all been painful.
Some stick out as being worse than others, though. Here are England’s five most painful World Cup exits.
#5: World Cup 2010
This one was painful not only in the way that it happened (a 4-1 mauling at the hands of Germany in the round of 16) but, in what exactly it signaled.
England’s brutal loss to perhaps their greatest rivals marked the end of the group of players that the media had labeled the ‘Golden Generation’.
Expectations were relatively high for Fabio Capello’s England side going to South Africa, as they had breezed through their qualifying group, hammering Croatia twice, and the team still contained players usually considered to be world-class performers, the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and John Terry.
But once they arrived at the World Cup, it seemed that bad vibes surrounded the England camp from the get-go.
Whether it was down to Capello’s poor man-management (apparently not an issue during qualifying), or disagreements surrounding Terry’s inclusion (months before the tournament, it’d been reported that he’d had an affair with teammate Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend) remains a mystery to this day, but nobody could dispute that England were shockingly poor in the group stages.
They scraped through with a win over Slovenia after disappointing draws with the USA and Algeria, but any possibilities of it simply being a slow start were killed dead in their next tie.
Germany ruthlessly exposed the Golden Generation’s advanced age and lack of pace, and England were never really in the game, despite the controversial call that ruled out what would’ve been an equalizer from Frank Lampard when Germany were 2-1 up.
It was clear from the result that things had to change for England, and although Terry, Rooney, Gerrard, and Lampard continued to represent the Three Lions, the ‘Golden Generation’ were left truly dead and buried after this tournament and never lived up to their hype.
#4: World Cup 1998
England have been eliminated from the World Cup via a penalty shootout three times. We’ll look at the first time on a later slide, but of the remaining two (in 1998 and 2006), it’s the former that sticks out as being a harder pill to swallow.
In that instance, Glenn Hoddle’s side were eliminated by bitter rivals Argentina in the round of 16, after a truly titanic struggle that realistically should’ve gone England’s way.
Both sides exchanged penalties early in the first half, before teenage striker Michael Owen, scored a career-defining goal that was worthy of winning any World Cup tie. But a cleverly-worked free kick routine allowed Argentina to equalise on the stroke of half-time.
At 2-2 the game stood on a knife edge, but it seemed that the South Americans would have the advantage when David Beckham was sent off, after lashing out at Diego Simeone following a poor tackle from the Argentine midfielder.
As it turned out that wasn’t the case. England continued to battle on with ten men, and should’ve won the game when defender Sol Campbell headed home from a corner late in the second half.
But the referee disallowed the goal, feeling Alan Shearer had impeded goalkeeper Carlos Roa.
In the end, extra time could not separate the sides and penalties were required. This time the fall guys were midfielders Paul Ince and David Batty, who missed the crucial fifth kick, allowing Argentina to advance.
This was an incredibly painful exit for England as they had never really been second-best in the game, even with ten men, and had Campbell’s goal stood they would’ve advanced and from there, anything would’ve been possible.
#3: World Cup 1970
England travelled to Mexico in 1970 four years after winning the World Cup at home. It was generally considered that not only were the Three Lions one of the heavy favourites to win the tournament again, but their squad was arguably stronger than the one they’d boasted in 1966.
A loss in the group stages to hot favourites Brazil didn’t really slow England’s momentum down, as the 1-0 defeat was also considered one of the greatest games in tournament history to that point, with the legendary Bobby Moore facing off with Brazil’s greatest player Pele.
England beat Romania and Czechoslovakia in their other two games to qualify for the quarter-finals, where they were matched with West Germany, the team they’d beaten in the famous final, four years beforehand.
The Three Lions went into the game as favourites, but were without talismanic goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who had come down with a rough bout of food poisoning.
Early on it didn’t seem to matter, as England raced into a 2-0 lead with goals from Alan Mullery and Martin Peters.
A mistake from replacement goalkeeper Peter Bonetti allowed the Germans back into the game in the 68th minute, but it was manager Alf Ramsay’s mistake two minutes later that really turned the tide.
In a potential moment of hubris, he chose to substitute Bobby Charlton (England’s best player at the time), and that allowed West Germany’s most influential player, Franz Beckenbauer (who had been marking Charlton), to take over the game.
West Germany equalised in the 82nd minute through Uwe Seeler, and in extra time, Gerd Muller’s volley sent the holders packing.
Had England been able to call on Banks, they likely would’ve ran out winners and gone on to rematch Brazil in the final.
Indeed, had Ramsay not chosen to withdraw Charlton, that may have happened anyway. It was a massively disappointing end to the tournament for England.
#2: World Cup 1986
In most of their other World Cup exits, England could usually blame some sort of factor, or mix thereof, be it penalties, disallowed goals, over-confidence, injuries, you name it really.
But their exit in the 1986 edition of the tournament is the only one that fans of the Three Lions could blame outright cheating for, hence why it ranks so highly.
After a slow start that saw Bobby Robson’s side lose to Portugal, and draw with Morocco in the group stage, a 3-0 victory over Poland was enough to send them into the round of 16 in second place. There, they really seemed to hit their stride, thumping Paraguay 3-0 in one-sided fashion.
That win set up a quarter-final with Argentina, who sported the world’s best player at the time (Diego Maradona), within their ranks.
Given that England and Argentina had been at war over the Falkland Islands just four years prior, it made for a tense showdown.
It was Maradona who decided the tie in the end. Early in the second half, England’s Steve Hodge miscued a clearance and the ball sliced up into the air inside the penalty box. Maradona leaped for it with England keeper Peter Shilton, and blatantly punched the ball over him and into the net.
Somehow the referee failed to spot the foul and awarded the goal, and it was a sucker blow that England just couldn’t recover from.
Four minutes later, Maradona went on a slaloming run through England’s defence, cutting them to shreds en route to scoring one of the greatest World Cup goals of all time.
England pulled a goal back through Gary Lineker, but it was too little, too late in the end, and they were eliminated, while Argentina went on to lift the trophy.
It was a loss that still hurts to look back on today because if the referee had spotted Maradona’s infraction, he may have been sent off, thus would never have been on the field to score his amazing second goal.
In essence, England were undone by a moment of pure cheating.
#1: World Cup 1990
In the nine World Cup tournaments they’ve played since their 1966 victory, the closest England have come to recapturing that glory was at World Cup 1990 in Italy.
That edition saw them reach the semi-finals, where they lost to West Germany, but the nature of the loss, coupled with the overall performance in the tournament, makes it by far England’s most painful exit.
Bobby Robson’s team had started characteristically slowly in the tournament, drawing their first two group stage games with the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands.
But things started to pick up when a 1-0 victory over Egypt, sent them into the round of 16, and there, a last-gasp goal from David Platt at the end of extra time was enough to send them past Belgium and into the quarters.
The quarter-finals saw them almost upset by an unheralded, but brilliant Cameroon side inspired by 38-year old forward Roger Milla.
The African side went 2-1 up midway through the second half, but two penalties by Gary Lineker turned the tide and sent England into the semi-finals.
By that point, the likes of Platt, Paul Gascoigne, and Gary Lineker had begun to be seen as iconic superstars by the fans, and it looked like England finally had a side that could match up to the heroes of 1966.
The Semi-Final against old rivals West Germany in Turin is still spoken about in awe today. It turned out to be a classic match between two excellent and evenly-matched teams, and after 120 minutes, the score ended up locked at 1-1 with nothing to separate the two.
Penalty kicks were required, England’s first shootout in a tournament, and for the first, but not the last time, the Three Lions saw their hopes go up in smoke as Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle both missed their kicks, sending West Germany onwards into the final.
Perhaps only Euro 1996 matches this effort in terms of painful losses for England, as they were literally inches away from the final and probably would’ve beaten a poor Argentina side had they gotten there.
Eighteen years on, it remains the closest England have come to repeating their 1966 feat, and that’s why it still remains painful for England fans today.
