1966 FIFA World Cup final

1966 FIFA World Cup final
Queen Elizabeth II presents England captain Bobby Moore with the World Cup trophy.
England West Germany
4 2
After extra time
Date30 July 1966
VenueWembley Stadium, London
RefereeGottfried Dienst (Switzerland)
Attendance96,924
Weather20 °C (68 °F)[1]
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The 1966 FIFA World Cup final was a football match played at Wembley Stadium in London on 30 July 1966 to determine the winner of the 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth FIFA World Cup.[2] The match was contested by England and West Germany, with England winning 4–2 after extra time to claim the Jules Rimet Trophy. It was the first – and to date only – occasion that England has hosted or won the World Cup.

West Germany took the lead in the 11th minute when Helmut Haller shot the ball into the bottom left corner when an English defender failed to clear the ball, before Geoff Hurst equalized with a header to make it 1-1, assisting a teammate who took a free kick. The score remained level by halftime until England took the lead with a 78th minute goal from Martin Peters (who was the only player to be booked during the match). England almost won by full time before West German player, Wolfgang Weber, scored a 2-2 equaliser in the 90th minute. The game went into extra time, in which Geoff Hurst scored a controversial goal in the 101st minute to make the score 3-2 after the first 15 minutes of extra time, until Hurst scored again in the final minute to complete his hat-trick, ending the game 4-2 after the extra 30 minutes. He was the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final until Kylian Mbappé scored one in the 2022 final.

The match is remembered for England's only World Cup and first and only major international title, Geoff Hurst's hat-trick – the first scored in a FIFA World Cup final – and the dubious third goal awarded to England by referee Gottfried Dienst and linesman Tofiq Bahramov. The England team became known as the "wingless wonders", on account of their then-unconventional narrow attacking formation, described at the time as a 4–4–2.[3]

In addition to an attendance of 96,924 at the stadium, the British television audience peaked at 32.3 million viewers, making it the United Kingdom's most-watched television event ever.[4][5]

  1. ^ Binding, Lucia (9 July 2021). "Is it an omen? Weather conditions at Wembley predicted to be similar to 1966 World Cup final". Sky News. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Hurst the hero for England in the home of football". FIFA. Retrieved 11 November 2014
  3. ^ "Alf Ramsey – England's Anonymous Hero". FIFA. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference record television was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "A riot of colour, emotion and memories: the World Cup stands alone in the field of sport". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2018.