The Times 50 Greatest Football Matches

From the earliest FA Cup finals in the 1870s to the glittering world of 21st-century Champions League matches contested by squads of millionaires, The Times has been at pitchside to write the history of football as it has happened. It is story of great matches: Hungary’s victory over England at Wembley in 1953, Manchester United’s triumph over Benfica in the 1968 European Cup, Liverpool’s remarkable recovery to win the Champions League in Istanbul in 2005. It is a story of dazzling individual performances: Stanley Matthews finally winning an FA Cup at Wembley in 1953, Bobby Moore giving a masterclass in defending for England against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo’s virtuoso performance as Real Madrid won the 2017 Champions League. It is a story of national highs and lows, from Wembley in 1966 when England ruled the world after defeating West Germany to the humiliation of losing to Iceland in 2016. But above all it is a story of great players, great managers and great personalities. AUTHOR: Richard Whitehead was the deputy obituaries editor of The Times and had worked on the paper for nineteen years in a number of departments. Previous roles include assistant sports editor and deputy books editor. He has worked on a large number of Times archive supplements and edited many one-off magazines and supplements. He is also the obituaries editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and a regular book reviewer for The Cricketer magazine. He edited The Times on the Ashes (THP, 2015).
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