The Twelve of England twelve, with a more nationalist tone, apparently inspired by his research into Camões and Garrett, but also possibly motivated by the 1890 British Ultimatum, which had provoked a strong anti-British feeling in republican-nationalist circles in Portugal at that time. The legend took a new life when the Portugal national football team made their debut at the 1966 FIFA World Cup hosted in England. Led by eventual top-scorer Eusébio, they reached third place in the tournament. The Portuguese newspaper press gave the fabled team the nickname "Os Magriços", in reference to the "Twelve of England". Although the legend was familiar to
1966 FIFA World Cup qualification were 393 goals scored over 127 games, for an average of 3.09 goals per game and 51 teams played in qualification. The 16 spots available in the 1966 World Cup were be distributed among the continental zones as follows: UEFA, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF had a guaranteed number of places, whereas the CAF and AFC had to contest a play-off to determine which confederation would be represented. After the first round of 1966 FIFA World Cup finals, the percentage of teams from each confederation that passed through to the Quarter-finals was as follows: For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a