Demons lurk in the past for all four teams: what happens next will always be remembered
France’s Patrick Battiston is carried off with a broken jaw and three broken ribs during the tumultuous 1982 semi-final with West Germany 14 Jul 2026 - The Guardian Jonathan Wilson World Cup games mean more. England have only ever played 80 games in the finals, which is to say, not much more than two Premier League seasons in the 76 years since they first entered. Those games draw huge audiences: more than 17 million in the UK watched Saturday’s win over Norway, even though it was after midnight by the time it finished. In most countries, World Cup matches are more discussed, more analysed, than any other in sport, perhaps any other cultural phenomenon. They are rare moments that bring vast numbers of people together, hoping, agonising, celebrating, commiserating. They become part of the culture. Moments from games become touchstones. Allusions can be made to games from six decades ago in the reasonable expectation of being understood. That has a strange, distorting effect. ...