History of the England national football team substitutions. England played Belgium for a second time in the third place play-off, on 14 July and lost 2-0. History of the England national football team The history of the England national football team begins with the first ever international football match in 1870. They have won one World Cup, in 1966 on home soil, and qualified fourteen times for the tournament onwards from 1950. England staged Euro 1996 (European Championship). However, the team has never made it to the final of the competition; their best performances being a semi final in Euro 1968 and Euro 1996. England's first ever
Cuthbert Ottaway skill and control than most footballers of his period; at a time when play of the most robust sort – including body-checking and "hacking" – was in vogue, Ottaway was praised for his grace. "His beautiful science," another report observed, "exhibited how a ball ought to be taken through a host of foes." Ottaway appears to have been well regarded by his teammates, but there are hints that he practised the snobbery not uncommon among men of his class and time. The Sheffield amateur Charles Clegg (later Sir Charles Clegg, President of the Football Association), who played alongside him in