England national football team

Initial time

The first international match for an England side was also the first official international in the history of football, with the team captained by Cuthbert Ottaway facing a Scottish side at Hamilton Crescent, in what is now Glasgow's Partick district, on 30 November 1872. The match ended 0-0 in front of a crowd of around 4000, and the following year the English side recorded their first win with a 4-2 defeat of Scotland at Kennington Oval Stadium. The 13-0 win over the Irish selection on 18 February 1882 was the highest victory in an international match until 22 October 1908, when Denmark defeated a French selection 17-1 at the London Olympics.

For the next 40 years England played almost exclusively against Scotland, Wales and Ireland, which was the fourth country in the United Kingdom before partition in 1921. The first official matches against opponents from mainland Europe took place during a tour of central Europe in 1908. There England won easily against Austria and a selection from Bohemia. England's first defeat outside the UK came on 15 May 1929 when they lost 4-3 to Spain in Madrid.

The FA had joined world football's governing body FIFA in 1906, but as the relationship between FIFA and the British associations turned negative due to a dispute over payments to amateur players, the British nations withdrew from FIFA again in 1928. This resulted in the English national team not participating in the first three World Cups. England's own national team was dubbed the "unofficial world champions" when they defeated the reigning world champions from Italy 3-2 in the match known as the Battle of Highbury in November 1934.

Postwar Era

After the end of the Second World War, the FA moved closer to FIFA once again in a process of modernisation, rejoining it in 1946 and appointing Walter Winterbottom as the national team's first official coach in the same year, after a committee had previously been involved in organising each team. They lost their first home game against a non-British opponent in 1949, when they were defeated 2-0 by Ireland at Goodison Park, Liverpool. The following year, the England national football team made their debut at the 1950 World Cup, where they lost sensationally 1-0 to the United States and were eliminated after the first group stage. Also at the next two World Cups in Switzerland and Sweden the English team could not convince and showed clearly how much the English football had lost quality compared to the rest of the football world.

The tactical inferiority was particularly evident when the English team faced Hungary at their own Wembley Stadium on 25 November 1953. With legendary players such as Ferenc Puskás, József Bozsik, Sándor Kocsis and Nándor Hidegkuti, the Hungarian national team was one of the world's best at the time and beat England 6-3 at Wembley. This was the first home defeat for the English team against a team from mainland Europe. The return match in Budapest was won even more by the Hungarian team, 7-1. This 1:7 is to this day the highest defeat in the history of the English national football team.

In the 1960s, English football underwent a significant modernisation of tactical behaviour and training operations, which paid off with a respectable showing at the 1962 World Cup in Chile, when England reached the quarter-finals, losing only to eventual world champions Brazil. Following Winterbottom's resignation in 1962, former captain Alf Ramsey took over as coach, immediately boldly claiming that England would win the following World Cup, which was to be held on home soil.

World championship titles and creeping decline (1962-1982)

Ramsey's prediction did indeed come true and England went on to win the 1966 World Cup, which to this day stands as the greatest achievement in English football history. Led by captain Bobby Moore, the England Wingless Wonders - so called because Ramsey had his side play without a true winger in the tournament - defeated Argentina and Portugal before facing Germany in the final at Wembley Stadium. England won the final 4-2 after extra time after a total of three goals from Geoff Hurst (including the famous Wembley goal) and one from Martin Peters. Kenneth Wolstenholme, a reporter for the British broadcaster BBC, commented on the presence of spectators on the field, Hurst's last goal scored in the process in the 120th minute, and the end of the game with the phrase that became very famous as a result: "They think it's all over ... it is now! ”

England reached the third place at the following European Championship 1968 and was as defending champion one of the favorites for the World Cup 1970 in Mexico. After an intermediate 2:0 lead England lost in the quarterfinals Germany with 2:3 and was eliminated from the tournament. England also lost to Germany in the quarter-finals at the 1972 European Championships when they went down 3-1 on aggregate goals. The negative trend continued when England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in Germany after a 1-1 draw with Poland in qualifying, when they were repeatedly thwarted by a strong performing Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. In the aftermath of the failed qualification, the FA sacked coach Ramsey, who had managed 69 wins and 27 draws in 113 games with England. The FA were heavily criticised for not giving Ramsey the opportunity to make his own decision to resign, given the successes that were down to his sporting stewardship.

After a short transition period under coach Joe Mercer the FA signed Don Revie as Ramsey's official successor. Under his aegis, the performance of the English national team developed even more negatively than in the late phase of Ramsey and England could qualify neither for the group stage of the 1976 European Championship nor for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Revie had already resigned in 1977 and was replaced by Ron Greenwood. At the same time, a steadily growing hooligan problem developed among supporters around the national team, particularly at England away internationals. At the 1980 European Championship, the Italian police even used tear gas during a group match against Belgium. England qualified for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, but failed there in the second group stage, although the team had not lost a game. During this tournament, too, England's matches were accompanied by violence.

Renewal under Bobby Robson and changeable phases in the 1990s (1982-2000)

Although much of the public and media had been very sceptical of Bobby Robson during his time as national coach, he is now regarded as one of England's most successful coaches. After failing to qualify for the 1984 European Championship finals in France following a defeat to Denmark, he led the national team to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. After a poor start that saw England lose to Portugal and draw with Morocco without their injured captain Bryan Robson, three goals from Gary Lineker in a 3-0 win over Poland secured their passage to the next round. After another 3-0 win over Paraguay in the second round, the team lost to eventual world champions Argentina in a controversial match. During the 2-1 defeat, Diego Maradona scored two goals, the first of which went down in football history as the Hand of God goal. The second goal, preceded by Maradona dribbling across half the pitch and past five England players, was later named World Cup Goal of the Century. Gary Lineker won the title of top scorer of the World Cup.

England qualified for the 1988 European Championship in Germany, but lost all three group matches against Ireland (0:1), as well as against the later finalists Netherlands (1:3) and Soviet Union (1:3).

The next World Cup, in 1990, was to be the best performance by an England team since they won the title in 1966. After a slow start in the group stage, the team narrowly edged out Belgium and Cameroon by a goal difference in each of the knockout rounds, before losing on penalties to Germany in the semi-finals after a 1-1 draw after extra time. Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle had their spot-kicks missed in the process, but good team performances, the emergence of Paul Gascoigne as England's best player during the tournament and the absence of violent action were factors in the coming rehabilitation of football in 1990s British society. After the tournament, England goalkeeper Peter Shilton retired after a total of 125 appearances, making him a record international to this day.

The time under Graham Taylor, Robson's successor as national coach, turned out to be very unhappy. During his tenure, England failed to win a game during the 1992 European Championship in Sweden. Taylor was heavily criticised for his decision to substitute Gary Lineker after 64 minutes in the all-important final group game against Sweden, when the score was 2-1. England also failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States from then on, although in a qualifying match against San Marino, one of the weakest football teams around, the team had trailed 1-0 after just a few seconds before England went on to win 7-1. Taylor was sacked in 1993 and replaced by Terry Venables, who led the England national team to a fine performance at the 1996 European Championships at home. Expectations were very high at this tournament, marking the 30th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup, and the England team started well in the preliminary round. They beat Scotland 2-0 with a very well played Paul Gascoigne and then beat the highly rated Netherlands team by a surprisingly clear 4-1 margin. After beating Spain on penalties, England faced Germany in the semi-finals, as they had six years earlier at the World Cup, after a 1-1 draw after extra time on penalties. After Gareth Southgate missed the decisive penalty, England again lost to the German team.

Venables resigned at the end of the European Championship. His successor Glenn Hoddle completed a successful qualifying campaign for the 1998 World Cup in France with England, securing their place at the tournament with a 0-0 draw against Italy at the Stadio Olimpico. At the World Cup, the England team was then beaten again on penalties after David Beckham had already been forced to leave the field early during the match against Argentina due to a red card. The following year, Hoddle resigned from his post after previously making controversial statements about disabled people in a newspaper interview. In these he expressed his opinion that disabled people would pay the price for past life sins. Former England captain Kevin Keegan took over as coach and led the team to the 2000 European Championships in the Netherlands and Belgium after scoring 2-1 in the first and second legs against Scotland in the play-off, but the team failed to progress past the group stage. Keegan resigned in September 2000 after the team lost their last game at the old Wembley Stadium, a 2002 World Cup qualifier against Germany.

Foreign national coaches, non-participation in the European Championship 2008 and penalty defeats (2000-2012)

In 2001, Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed Keegan's successor, making him England's first foreign coach. Eriksson led the team to a spectacular 5-1 away win over Germany in September that year after trailing 1-0, as Emile Heskey and Steven Gerrard were joined by an outstanding Michael Owen to score three goals. England secured direct qualification and group victory with a late free-kick goal to draw 2-2 at home to Greece and on the back of a better goal difference. At the World Cup in Japan and South Korea itself, England beat Argentina 1-0 in the group stage to reach the quarter-finals, where they lost 2-1 to eventual world champions Brazil.

The English team also won the qualifying group for the European Championship 2004 after a 0-0 draw against Turkey in the last match. Despite a defeat in the preliminary round against France, England was considered one of the favourites for the rest of the tournament. However, the team failed to reach the quarter-finals against the hosts from Portugal, again losing out on penalties.

In 2005, Eriksson faced increased criticism for his defensive strategy, a rather dispassionate understanding of the game, communication problems with his players and certain difficulties in adapting tactics to a changing game, most notably evident in the defeat to Brazil during the 2002 World Cup. The 4-1 defeat in a friendly against Denmark was followed by another low point when England lost 1-0 to their rivals from Northern Ireland in a 2006 World Cup qualifier. This historic defeat resulted in a huge wave of criticism, despite the team having played a good qualifying campaign beforehand. A hard-fought and unconvincing 1-0 win over Austria did nothing to ease the pressure. Nevertheless, England qualified for the 2006 World Cup before their final match, which they won 2-1 against Poland thanks to a marked improvement in performance.

With qualifying over, England beat Argentina 3-2 in a friendly in Geneva, Switzerland, in possibly their best performance for several years.

Eriksson was also widely criticised for his experimentation in friendly matches, at times substituting the entire team at half-time before FIFA ruled in 2004 that a maximum of six players could be replaced in such matches. Another criticism highlighted that Eriksson would diminish the status of the captain's office by briefly appointing players such as Emile Heskey and Phil Neville as captain after substitutions and substitutions, with the discussion then settling on the fact that only the player who leads his team during kick-off is recognised as the official captain, distinguishing him from a player who only takes the captain's armband on a temporary basis during the course of the match.

Following controversy in the News of the World newspaper in January 2006, the FA decided to reach an agreement with Eriksson over his future, following which it was announced on 23 January 2006 that Eriksson would step down as national coach in the summer after the conclusion of the World Cup. Several potential replacements were traded in an exceptionally long selection process that was very much under public criticism, most notably Portuguese coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, but he turned down the offer partly due to the excessive pressure that had been created in the British media landscape. On 4 May 2006, Steve McClaren was appointed as Eriksson's official successor. He coached the team for the first time on 16 August 2006 against Greece at Old Trafford.

At the 2006 World Cup, the English team already showed weaknesses in the group stage. The opening match against Paraguay was decided by an early Paraguayan own goal and left an overall disappointing impression considering England's co-favourite role in the tournament. A hard-fought 2-0 win over World Cup debutants Trinidad and Tobago followed in the final ten minutes, with the long-awaited second-half comeback of the previously injured Wayne Rooney failing to significantly improve England's quality of play. In their final group game, a 2-2 draw with Sweden was enough to secure group victory. Michael Owen was unlucky in this match, suffering a cruciate ligament rupture in the fourth minute through no fault of his own, thus exacerbating the already existing problems in England's attacking play. In the round of 16, Ecuador were beaten 1-0. In the quarter-final against Portugal, England were eliminated on penalties, as they had been at the 1990 World Cup against Germany and the 1998 World Cup against Argentina.

The English press bid Eriksson farewell with derision and criticism. The Sunday Mirror, for example, asked the outgoing coach to return the salary paid to him, while The Independent concluded that Eriksson liked women better than trophies. The Times even accused him of turning England internationals into a "long-ball cult".

New England coach Steve McClaren appointed John Terry as the team's new captain after taking charge following the 2006 World Cup, and held off on nominating David Beckham for a long time. Along with former head coach Terry Venables as assistant coach, McClaren sorted out another veteran player in Sol Campbell in an additional step to rebuild the squad.

In the 2006/07 season, the England national team began the qualifying round for the 2008 European Football Championship in Austria and Switzerland. After a friendly win against Greece (4-0), the England selection started the qualifying campaign with two victories against Andorra and Macedonia. However, two disappointing results followed when first Macedonia were surprisingly not beaten by a 0-0 scoreline at home and finally a 2-0 defeat to Croatia in Zagreb ended England goalkeeper Paul Robinson's run of six games without conceding a goal. The result against Croatia also represented the worst result in a competitive match by an England senior side in exactly 13 years - when they lost by the same scoreline to the Netherlands in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers - and from then on the England side's performance continued to be uninspired. At the end of a 1-0 friendly defeat to Spain at Old Trafford, the team were booed by the crowd for their efforts, and the 0-0 draw with Israel in Tel-Aviv left their own supporters mocking and rejecting them.

On 28 March 2007, the England selectors did not end their goal drought against Andorra until Steven Gerrard scored in the 54th minute of the match. After a second long-range strike from Gerrard, debutant David Nugent scored to make the final score 3-0. This ended a run of five games without a win, but even there the team had endured angry reactions from their own fans at half-time for failing to score against internationally underclass opposition (the Andorran side were mostly part-time professionals and were 163rd in the FIFA World Ranking at the time - compared to England, the world's ninth-best side in that regard). Even after England's goals, the chants of 'We want McClaren out' and 'There's only one David Beckham' continued.

On 1 June 2007, England played their first game at the new Wembley Stadium against Brazil. The game ended 1-1, with John Terry scoring the first senior goal in the new arena (Diego equalised for Brazil in injury time). David Beckham, who provided the free-kick for England's goal, was named in this match for the first time since the 2006 World Cup.

On 21 November 2007, England missed out on participation in the European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland. In the final home match against Croatia, in which both teams would have been content with a draw, the team lost 3-2 in a highly dramatic encounter, while direct rivals Russia moved past England in the group table with a 1-0 win in Andorra. The very next day, Steve McClaren was relieved of his duties as head coach of the national team by the Football Association (FA). Co-coach Terry Venables was also sacked. Both contracts were terminated with immediate effect.

On 14 December 2007, Fabio Capello was appointed as the new national coach. Under Capello, England became the second European team to qualify early for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The 4-1 win in Croatia and the 5-1 win at Wembley were revenge for the team's failure to qualify for the European Championship. England also lost 1-0 in Ukraine in the penultimate match of the tournament, which was of no significance for their own qualification, so Croatia finished third in their group and missed out on the relegation play-offs for the best group runners-up. At the end of the year, an England side with several substitutes lost 1-0 to Brazil in Doha. Capello also used David Beckham sporadically as a substitute and urged him to move to a top European club if he wanted to play in the World Cup. However, the sporadic appearances made Beckham the England outfield player with the most appearances at that point with 115 caps (he has since been overtaken by Wayne Rooney). Only goalkeeper Peter Shilton had more caps, with 125. However, Beckham was ultimately denied a place at the World Cup due to an Achilles tendon injury.

At the World Cup, they played the USA, Algeria and Slovenia in the group stage. After two disappointing draws against the USA (1:1) and Algeria (0:0), they were under pressure against Slovenia. In the end, Slovenia was defeated 1-0. In the round of 16, they met their arch-rivals Germany, against whom they lost 1:4. A goal scored by Frank Lampard at 1-2, but disallowed by the referee, brought back memories of the Wembley goal.

The qualifiers for the 2012 European Football Championship pitted England against Montenegro, Bulgaria, Wales and Switzerland. In the beginning, England had a long-distance duel with Montenegro; on the third and fourth matchday of the qualifiers, Montenegro even finished first in the qualifying group G. On 7 October 2011, the penultimate qualifying matchday, England and Montenegro drew 2-2 (the first leg on 12 October 2010 ended 0-0), with England securing the group win.

On 3 February 2012, John Terry was removed as captain of the national team by the FA as the court case against Terry for alleged racist remarks was not due to take place until after the Euro 2012 football championship and the FA feared a negative impact on the national team's performance at Euro 2012. Fabio Capello criticised the FA's decision in several interviews and resigned as coach of the national team on 8 February.

Shortly before the 2012 European Football Championship, on 1 May 2012, Roy Hodgson was named as Fabio Capello's successor. However, he did not take up the post until after the end of the Premier League season. Hodgson did appoint Terry to the European Championship squad and dispensed with Rio Ferdinand, whose brother had allegedly racially insulted Terry, but named Steven Gerrard as captain. Before the European Championship, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Gary Cahill were all out injured.

At the European Championship, England again failed to win their opening game, but a 1-1 draw with France and wins over Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine clinched group victory. In the quarter-finals, the English side, who played a similar tactic to Chelsea FC in the Champions League final, were clearly outclassed by the Italian side but still reached the penalty shoot-out, where they lost again.

Present (as of 2012)

In qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, England were drawn in Europe Group H with Ukraine, Montenegro, Poland, Moldova and San Marino. The Three Lions went through their matches without defeat (six wins, four draws) and finished top of their group ahead of Ukraine. On the final matchday on 15 October 2013, they beat Poland 2-0 at Wembley Stadium to secure their place in the World Cup.

The finals saw three former world champions - England, Italy and Uruguay - face off in a preliminary group for the first time, as England's poor FIFA ranking meant they were placed in Lottery Pot 4. The group was completed by Costa Rica. England lost their first match 2-1 to Italy; they also lost their second match 2-1 to Uruguay on 19 June 2014. Italy's defeat the following day against Costa Rica meant that elimination was already certain after the second matchday of the preliminary round group. This was the first time an English team had been eliminated after the preliminary round at a World Cup since 1958, when they were held to a goalless draw by Costa Rica, who had started the tournament as underdogs. The result meant the Central American side finished top of their group and later progressed to the quarter-finals.

After the World Cup, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard resigned, Wayne Rooney became the new captain and led England into the subsequent European Championship qualification, which England began with seven wins in a row and thus qualified mathematically for the European Championship already on 5 September 2015. As England also won their remaining matches, they were the only team in the qualifiers without dropping a point and were therefore considered one of the contenders for the title. England entered the finals with the second youngest squad, but lost 2-1 to debutants Iceland in the last 16, prompting Roy Hodgson to resign as coach shortly after the game. Wayne Rooney, on the other hand, reaffirmed his desire to continue playing for England. On 30 November 2016, Gareth Southgate was appointed as the new coach.

Under him, the Three Lions regained their former strength and reached the 2018 World Cup as unbeaten leaders in the qualifiers, where strong performances by new regular goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and new captain Harry Kane, among others, put them in the spotlight; in the end, they lost the third-place match to Belgium. They also finished third in the final round of the UEFA Nations League just over a year later in spring 2019.

On 14 November 2019, the England selectors played their 1000th international match. In those 1000 games, a total of 1245 players had already been named, with Leicester City's James Maddison making his debut in that game. The qualifying campaign for Euro 2021 was contested with ten wins from as many games; this was otherwise only achieved by Belgium.

On 1 June 2021, the 26-player squad for Euro 2021 was announced.

In the final phase of the preparation match against Austria on 2 June 2021, the nominated Trent Alexander-Arnold was injured and left the squad. Ben White was named as a replacement. Due to ongoing hip problems, Aaron Ramsdale moved into the team for Dean Henderson after the first group game. After close contact with Billy Gilmour (of group opponents Scotland), who tested positive on 21 June, Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount were forced into a multi-day quarantine and will miss at least the final group game against the Czech Republic.

• Performance data status: 22 June 2021 (after the match against the Czech Republic).