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Alf Ramsey's ‘Wingless wonders' overcame Final opponents West Germany thanks to Geoff Hurst's historic hat-trick - though the debate over whether his middle strike crossed the line continues to this day. Eusebio was another hero of '66, scoring nine goals - four of them against Italy's surprise conquerors, Korea DPR - to carry Portugal to third place. 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onchange="go(this.options[this.selectedIndex].value)"><option value="#">[select edition]</option><option value="/worldcup/archive/germany2006/index.html">Germany 2006 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=4395/index.html">Korea/Japan 2002 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=1013/index.html">France 1998 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=84/index.html">USA 1994 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=76/index.html">Italy 1990 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=68/index.html">Mexico 1986 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=59/index.html">Spain 1982 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=50/index.html">Argentina 1978 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=39/index.html">Germany 1974 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=32/index.html">Mexico 1970 </option><option value="/worldcup/archive/edition=26/index.html" selected="selected">England 1966 </option><option 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href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/statistics/index.html">Statistics</a></li><li class=""><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/awards/index.html">Awards</a></li><li class=""><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/preliminaries/index.html">Preliminaries</a></li><li class=""><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/photo/photolist.html" class="last">Photos</a></li></ul> <div id="mainContent"><div class="content"> <div class=" article staticArticle saSideContent saTitleAndSidePic"><div class=" title "><h1>1966 FIFA World Cup England ™ </h1></div><div class="mC"> <h2 class="articleHeadline"><img src="/web/20071011084548im_/http://fifa.com/mm/photo/archivedtournament/summaries/england66%5ffifa%5f454%5f2416%5fsq%5fsmall.jpg" alt="1966 FIFA World Cup England, Final: Germany - England 2:4" height="150" width="150"/>Hurst the hero for England in the home of football </h2><div class="articleBody"> <p style="clear:both">Since its launch in 1930, the FIFA World Cup <sup>TM</sup> had grown in stature to become clearly the world's senior international football tournament. </p><p style="clear:both">After the Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen while on display in London, the hosts triumphed again when it was recovered by a dog called Pickles under a bush in a suburban front garden in south London a few days later.</p><p style="clear:both">Pelé was again battered, this time by Bulgaria and Portugal as Brazil's bid for a third consecutive title faltered. England, shrewdly managed by Alf (later Sir Alf) Ramsey, beat West Germany 4-2 after extra time in a thrilling final at Wembley, when Geoff Hurst made history with a hat-trick, including the most controversial goal ever scored. Did the ball really cross the line after bouncing down from the crossbar? The debate still rages. <br/><br/><strong>Modern times</strong></p><p style="clear:both">An enormous popular success in England and elsewhere, the FIFA World Cup took on another dimension in 1966. On the pitch, the host nation England ran out the winners, leaving some of their opponents feeling hard done by.</p><p style="clear:both">With 16 African nations declaring forfeit even before a single match had kicked off, the 1966 FIFA World Cup qualifiers did not get off to the best of starts. The Africans' protest was the result of a new FIFA rule stipulating that the winners of the Africa zone must then beat the winners of either the Asia or Oceania zone in order to reach the 1966 finals. The Africans believed that winning their zone should have been enough to go straight through to the finals. This 1964 ruling was eventually overturned four years later in Africa's favour. Meanwhile, with 70 teams taking part in the qualifiers - another new record - FIFA decided that ten teams should qualify from Europe, four from South America, one from Asia and one from North and Central America.</p><p style="clear:both">Notable first-time qualifiers were the Portuguese, who reached the finals despite being drawn in the same group as Czechoslovakia, finalists four years earlier. The English, in front of their own crowd and the cameras of the BBC, were, needless to say, among the tournament favourites. Playing proficiently and without conceding a goal, they won through to the quarter-finals, drawing 0-0 against Uruguay, winning 2-0 against Mexico and 2-0 again against France. But the big news of the first round was the elimination of the title-holder, Brazil. After beating Bulgaria, Pelé and his team-mates went down to Hungary and then the surprise team, Portugal. And once again Pelé was a victim of over-physical play on the part of defenders. Injured against Bulgaria, he missed the Hungary game before again being carried off against Portugal.</p><p style="clear:both"><strong>Champions on home soil</strong></p><p style="clear:both">Among those qualifying for the second round were the North Koreans, who surprised everybody by knocking out the Italians and then taking a 3-0 lead over the Portuguese in the tournament's most dazzling match. Portugal fought back and eventually triumphed (5-3), with Eusebio supplying four of the goals. The rest of the tournament, however, failed to maintain this momentum. The English, who had the distinct advantage of playing all their games at Wembley, eventually won the title, beating Germany (4-2) after extra-time in the final, and Captain Bobby Moore led this team to the royal box to receive the trophy from Queen Elizabeth II.</p></div> </div><div class="sC staticSC"> <div class=" box33"><h2>Quick Links </h2><div class="iC"><div class="qL qLBullet"><ul><li class="first "><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/results/index.html"><wbr>Results</wbr></a></li><li class=""><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/statistics/index.html"><wbr>Statistics</wbr></a></li><li class=""><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/teams/index.html"><wbr>Teams</wbr></a></li><li class=""><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/awards/index.html"><wbr>Awards</wbr></a></li><li class="last "><a href="/web/20071011084548/http://fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=26/preliminaries/index.html"><wbr>Preliminaries</wbr></a></li></ul></div></div><div class="f"> </div></div></div></div></div></div><div id="extendedContent"><div class="h exH"> </div><div class="content"> <div class=" advert advert box"><h2>Advertisement</h2><div class="iC"><script type="text/javascript"> DBClickTile = DBClickTile + 1; document.write('<iframe id="6f82aa96-971d-4c2b-996c-f64714c628a4" ' + ' src="" width="160" height="600" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" bordercolor="#000000">'); if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Gecko")==-1){ document.write('<script language="javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/4597.fifa.com/tournaments;site=www;tile=' + DBClickTile + ';sz=160x600;ord=' + DBClickOrd + '?" type="text/javascript"></scr' + 'ipt>'); } document.write('</iframe>'); if(document.getElementById('6f82aa96-971d-4c2b-996c-f64714c628a4')){ document.getElementById('6f82aa96-971d-4c2b-996c-f64714c628a4').src = 'https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/4597.fifa.com/tournaments;site=www;tile=' + DBClickTile + ';sz=160x600;ord=' + DBClickOrd + '?'; } </script><noscript><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/4597.fifa.com/tournaments;site=www;sz=160x600;ord=123456789" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548im_/http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/4597.fifa.com/tournaments;site=www;sz=160x600;ord=123456789" width="160" height="600" border="0" alt=""/></a></noscript></div></div> </div><div class="f exF"> </div></div><div id="preContentFooter"> </div><div id="contentFooter"> </div></div><div id="footer"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548im_/http://img.fifa.com/imgml/foot/fifaLogo.gif" height="45" width="51" alt="FIFA [logo]"/><div><ul><li class="first"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html">FIFA World Cup™</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/index.html">Tournaments</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/index.html">World Football</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/newscentre/index.html">News Centre</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/index.html">Classic Football</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/fanfest/index.html">Fan Fest</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071011084548/http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/index.html">About FIFA</a></li></ul><ul><li class="first">Copyright ©1994 - 2007 FIFA. 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