History of the FIFA World Cup by FIFA to the regions of Asia, Oceania and Africa. The eventual qualifiers from the zone, North Korea, became the first Asian team to reach the quarter-finals, eliminating Italy in the process. England won the tournament, although João Havelange (former FIFA president from 1974 to 1998) claimed that the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were fixed so that England and Germany would win respectively. Geoff Hurst became the first and to this day the only player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup Final and Eusébio, whose team Portugal were taking part in their first World Cup, was the
1966 FIFA World Cup knockout stage 1966 FIFA World Cup knockout stage The knockout stage of the 1966 FIFA World Cup was the second and final stage of the competition, following the group stage. The knockout stage began on 23 July with the quarter-finals and ended on 30 July 1966 with the final match, held at Wembley Stadium in London. The top two teams from each group (eight in total) advanced to the knockout stage to compete in a single-elimination style tournament. A third place play-off also was played between the two losing teams of the semi-finals. England won the final 4–2 against West Germany for