FOOTBALL: BANANA SKINS: THE GREAT ENGLAND SLIP-UPS

ENGLAND 0 UNITED STATES 1

World Cup, Belo Horizonte

29 June 1950

England's most embarrassing slip-up of all. Even without Stanley Matthews, they had beaten Chile in the opening game of the finals in Brazil. Assuming the Americans would be overwhelmed and concerned that he was still not fully fit, they omitted him from the second, at some cost. However, all of the early evidence pointed to a rout. England hardly ever retreated to their own half and had shooting practice, but the shots were never quite on target and fine goalkeeping by Borghi also kept them out. With eight minutes to go the unimaginable occurred, Gaetjens deflecting the ball past Williams. A team containing Mortensen, Mannion and Finney could not believe it. Neither could the Americans.

ENGLAND 1 POLAND 1

World Cup, Wembley

17 October 1973

Jan Tomaszewski will never be forgotten as the Polish goalkeeper Brian Clough famously and wrongly described as a "clown" but who defied England to such an extent that they failed to qualify for the 1974 finals. The result ended the managerial career of Sir Alf Ramsey. Tomaszewski was beaten only once. He held or deflected every drive or header, some luckily but many with remarkable skill. Several of his saves were on the line. Domarski gave Poland the lead in the 57th minute but Allan Clarke equalised with a penalty. Bobby Moore, a substitute, pleaded with Ramsey to send on reinforcements. Ramsey obliged but sent on Kevin Hector rather than Kevin Keegan.

NORWAY 2 ENGLAND 1

World Cup, Oslo

9 September 1981

England's manager, Ron Greenwood, conceded: "We let them play for five minutes and they scored two goals." Two goals that could well have cost England qualification but because of the outcome of the remaining games did not. A local radio commentator was not concerned with the long-term. In a few moments of memorable drivel he claimed: "We are the best in the world. We have beaten England. Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana: we have beaten them all. Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, your boys took a hell of a beating. Norway have beaten England at football!"

ENGLAND 0 DENMARK 1

European Championship, Wembley 21 September 1983

England could not afford to lose this qualifying match, and having drawn in Denmark, they ought to have had little trouble at home. However, they had earlier failed to beat Greece at Wembley and the pressure was on. The Danes knew that to qualify for the finals they had to avoid defeat, which suggested a defensive performance. But on the day, they were urgently forward-looking, with Michael Laudrup and Allan Simonsen outstanding. In the 39th minute a centre from Laudrup was handled by the Liverpool full-back Phil Neal. Simonsen succeeded with the penalty and the Danes went on to hold their lead and qualify for France, at the expense of England.

NORWAY 2 ENGLAND 0

World Cup, Oslo

2 June 1993

And yet again, Norway made England look silly, or more accurately Graham Taylor, who made such a mess of his team selection that he never regained his credibility as an international manager. After numerous changes in his earlier teams, which tended to reflect his own uncertainty, he finally persuaded himself to let Norway dictate his own tactics. Believing that Jostein Flo would be fed with crosses from the right side, he asked Gary Pallister, a central defender, to become a left-back and mark him out of the game. Norway immediately put less emphasis on Flo and scored twice, mainly as a result of England's defensive confusion caused by last-minute positional changes.

ENGLAND 1 ROMANIA 2

World Cup, Toulouse

22 June 1998

England's most recent failure, this time against a country that had beaten them only once before. The experienced but dull Romanians exposed Glenn Hoddle's reluctance to give Michael Owen his head. When Owen did come on after 73 minutes he soon scored an equaliser to Moldovan's goal from Hagi's cross and his own ability to nip past Adams more successfully than he had while with Coventry. Romania had control until Owen arrived but even his goal failed to save England. In the last minute Petrescu fended off the challenge of his Chelsea team-mate Le Saux and shot through Seaman's legs. One of England's most mortifying moments, even if they did progress to the second round.