England's mixed record in previous World Cup openers

Our first Finals were in 1950, when Brazil last hosted them, and Walter Winterbottom’s England started with a ‘Pool Two’ match against Chile in Rio’s Maracana. England went ahead in pouring rain, Blackpool’s Stan Mortensen heading in from a Jimmy Mullen cross on 38 minutes. Wilf Mannion made it 2-0 midway through the second half but subsequent defeats to USA and Spain sent them home disappointingly early.

England’s World Cup opener four years later, played in Basle in Switzerland, went to extra-time. England were 2-1 up at half time against the Belgians. Then it was 3-3 after 90 minutes and 4-4 at the end of the extra half-hour. Ivor Broadis and Nat Lofthouse scored twice each as a 14,000 crowd inside the St Jakob Stadium was thoroughly entertained. England went out to Uruguay in the quarter finals.

USSR were England’s first opponents in 1958 in Sweden and they had only met three weeks earlier in a friendly, drawing 1-1 in Moscow. It was all square again in Gothenburg, England fighting back to draw 2-2 after going two goals down. Derek Kevan pulled one back and Tom Finney equalised with a spot-kick five minutes from time. Eleven days later USSR beat us 1-0 in a ‘Pool Four’ play-off.

England had Bobby Charlton, Johnny Haynes, Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Moore in the side as they took on Hungary in their first ‘Group Four’ match in the Chile Finals of 1962. A sparse crowd of less than 8,000 in Rancagua saw a Ron Flowers penalty for handball equalise a 16th-minute Hungarian goal and leave them with everything to play for. Florian Albert, who was to become a darling of the Goodison Park crowd in the next tournament, notched the winner after a slip by Flowers. Again England made it to the quarters before a Garrincha-inspired Brazil beat them in Vina del Mar.

After years of planning and months of preparation, England began their hosting of the 1966 World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Uruguay before 87,000 fans at Wembley. The South Americans often defended with eight or nine players and were clearly determined not to lose. Nineteen days later, Alf Ramsey’s team were ‘World Champions’ and they travelled to Mexico with a squad that some people thought was even stronger. It was Geoff Hurst, hat-trick hero in the Final, who thumped in the 65th-minute goal that won the points in the opener with Romania in Guadalajara.

England lost in the quarter finals for the third time, this time to West Germany in Leon, and failed to qualify for the next two tournaments. Then, in 1982 in Spain, they could hardly have started better with a Bryan Robson goal after 27 seconds – the third fastest in World Cup history – as fancied France were beaten 3-1 in Bilbao. England fans were jumping for joy as Robson again and Paul Mariner scored further goals but Ron Greenwood’s team went out after ‘Phase Two’ despite remaining unbeaten.

Bobby Robson took England to two World Cups, Mexico in 1986 and Italy in 1990, and they didn’t win either of their openers. Having gone 11 matches without defeat, England were full of confidence as they went into our first match in ’86 against Portugal in Monterrey. But they couldn’t turn their superiority into goals and the Portuguese popped up with a winner 15 minutes from time. Once again they reached the quarter finals, where they met Argentina…and Maradona. 

Gary Lineker scrambled home a goal after nine minutes against Jack Charlton’s Republic Ireland in their Italia '90 opener in Cagliari, with Kevin Sheedy levelling in a disappointing 1-1 draw. But England seemed to improve as the competition went on and made it through to the semi-finals for the first time on foreign soil. 

In 1998, France hosted the Finals for the first time for 60 years and England’s first ‘Group G’ opponents were Tunisia in Marseille, with Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes scoring for an England side playing well within itself. Argentina knocked them out again, this time in the Second Round.

In the Far East in 2002, England had a foreign manager in Sven-Goran Eriksson and began with a 1-1 draw against his native Sweden in Saitama. Sol Campbell headed powerfully home from a David Beckham corner on 23 minutes but they still hadn’t beaten the Swedes since the ‘60s. Brazil, the eventual World Cup winners, edged them 2-1 in the quarters. 

Beckham is mobbed after his winning goal against Paraguay in Germany 2006

Four years later, in Frankfurt, England won their ‘Group B’ opener against Paraguay with a curling Beckham free-kick that skimmed off Gamarra’s head and into the net.

England, now with Fabio Capello in charge, kept up their record of not losing a World Cup opener for 24 years when they drew 1-1 with USA in Rustenburg in the South Africa Finals of 2010. 

More than 20 million watched on ITV as Steven Gerrard fired England ahead inside four minutes. But, five minutes before half-time, Rob Green fumbled a Clint Dempsey effort over the line. England crashed out to Germany in a ‘Round of 16’ match best remembered for a Frank Lampard ‘goal’ that was wrongly disallowed by the Uruguayan referee.