Top 10 greatest England finals performances of our lifetime: Only one better than Mexico | OneFootball

England’s brilliant win over Mexico is a high new entry in our list of the Three Lions’ greatest performances at major finals…

We may be high on life, low on oxygen in the wake of winning at altitude, but we’ve narrowly avoided the huge temptation to throw England’s glorious win over the World Cup co-hosts straight to the top of the pile.

There’s still one performance and win that tops it. Just.

For reference ‘our lifetimes’ means the 1982 World Cup onwards and ‘finals performances’ means World Cups and Euros but not Le Tournoi or Nations League or anything else.

10) England 2-2 Argentina – World Cup 1998

‘Who knows if England would have overthrown the feared Argentinians had David Beckham not been sent off through a mixture of his suicidal petulance and over-reactive refereeing?’ asked the Daily Mail match report from St Etienne. ‘But what no-one can deny is that they were playing thrillingly enough to make their dream quarter-final with Holland a distinct possibility.’

Indeed it was a performance and a match that had a bit of everything. Two goals inside the opening ten minutes as each side exchanged penalties; a wonder goal from wonderkid Michael Owen, who rounded the world’s deepest ever defender before blasting high into the net; a clever set-piece to equalise – all that was in the first half.

The second half began badly for England and worse for Beckham. His red card for reacting to Diego Simeone’s foul provoked hanging effigies and death threats. But his team-mates did all they could to bail Beckham out, with a backs-to-the-wall display that was crowned by Sol Campbell’s late headed winner – until the ref got involved.

Penalties came and penalties went precisely as we had come to expect. David Batty and Paul Ince missed, but Beckham was the fall guy on the night Owen truly announced himself on the global stage.

9) England 3-0 Poland – 1986 World Cup

Bobby Robson’s England were in the mire going into their third and final group 6 clash with Poland in Monterrey. They had lost their opener against Portugal and been held to a goalless draw by Morocco, with Bryan Robson carried off and Ray Wilkins sent off.

“England will be playing 4-4-f*cking-2,” said Robson – perhaps – as he tweaked his formation, ditching 4-3-3. It paid immediate dividends with Gary Lineker netting a first-half hat-trick as ‘England soared into the second phase of the World Cup with an exhilarating display of attacking football’, according to the Football Monthly report.

The victory left Robson in defiant mood: “People can say what they like about me, but never ever accuse my players of lacking character. This was a phenomenal performance given the pressure they were under. Phenomenal!”

8) Argentina 0-1 England – 2002 World Cup

After the manner of England’s defeat to Argentina in France, the two nations were absolutely destined to meet again four years later. It’s how football and its f*cked-up sense of humour works.

The Three Lions, and Beckham, had their revenge in Sapporo. The skipper smashed in the winning penalty just before half-time after Owen hit the deck in the vicinity of Mauricio Pochettino’s leg.

‘They outplayed the team who had come into this tournament as favourites. England defended with supreme discipline, passed and moved with wit in midfield and attacked with intensity,’ proclaimed the Daily Express, while Paul Scholes’ nine-out-of-10 display was hailed as ‘the greatest of his career’ by The Times. It got worse for Argentina when they failed to qualify from the group. Which was nice.

7) Germany 1-1 England – Euro 96

Urgh. Football was coming home until it was grabbed off the street, bundled into the back of a van and smuggled back to Germany.

Before the penalty heartbreak, England gave a performance of typical spirit and fight. The Germans were certainly a match for Venables’ men though they struggled to live with the grey-shirted Three Lions in the opening stages, with Paul Ince’s volley being acrobatically saved before Alan Shearer headed in an opener with only five minutes on the clock. Germany recovered their composure, though, and levelled through Stefan Kuntz on 16 minutes.

Extra-time arrived and both sides went for the Golden Goal. Anderton hit the post and Paul Gascoigne was inches away from Shearer’s cross when, even today, you expect Gazza to toe it in. When penalties arrived, the first 10 were perfect. Then Gareth Southgate stepped up…

“If somebody told me you are going up to heaven and you can take one game with you, I think I would take that England game,” said Barry Davies after talking the public through it for the BBC. “I’d try to get the result changed when I got up there, though.”

6) England 1-1 Germany – 1990 World Cup

Italia ’90 was the best or worst tournament ever, depending on who you listen to. The Three Lions’ performances also lurched between extremes, from their opener against Republic of Ireland after which La Repubblica asked ‘Is this all there is to England?’, to the semi-final against Germany which Andreas Brehme declared “a fantastic match involving two great teams – it was the final before the final”.

After a last-gasp win against Belgium and a couple of penalties to squeeze past Cameroon, England’s luck ran out in Turin. “We hit the inside of the post, they scored a really lucky goal and we lost on a shoot-out,” said Gary Lineker, which sums it up perfectly.

Germany progressed to the final after being pushed all the way for 120 minutes. What if Bobby Robson’s men had triumphed in the shoot-out and gone on to face Diego Maradona and Argentina again. “Would England have beaten them?” Brehme pondered. “Definitely, 100 per cent.”

5) England 2-0 Germany – Euro 2020

This was England’s first win over Germany in the knockout stage of a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup final, knocking off one of four tournament hoodoos hanging over England when Gareth Southgate took the reins: beating the Germans; winning on penalties; reaching a final; winning a tournament. Three out of four ain’t bad.

Now, it’s also true that this wasn’t the greatest Germany side of all time. They struggled through the group stage in 2021 in between shambolic and hilarious exits at the same early stage of successive World Cups. But they were still Germany and England were still England. And in a cagey, cat-and-mouse kind of game England were the better side and finally made that superiority tell with goals in the final 15 minutes from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.

4) England 2-1 Netherlands – Euro 2024

Three years and a Qatar World Cup later, one of Southgate’s primary missions – the big one – remained incomplete. But his England earned themselves another crack at immortality with a deeply-satisfying triumph over the Netherlands, avenging for Graham Taylor a 31-year grudge over Ronald Koeman.

What was most satisfying: that England for the first time played like we know they can, at least for 45 minutes? Or the way in which passage to Berlin was secured, Ollie Watkins lashing home one of the finest finishes referenced on this list just as the clock ticked over from regulation to added time?

Why must we choose? We loved both. For 45 minutes, until Koeman sacrificed his nation’s attacking ambition by stuffing the midfield, England turned it on at the sixth time of asking in Germany. Stockport ran the Netherlands ragged, Phil Foden and Kobbie Mainoo running the show with the freedom and verve of two lads still knocking about in the shadow of the pyramid.

The second half was a stodgier affair, prompting the now bi-weekly cries of ‘make some f***ing subs, Southgate!’ without anyone offering a suggestion of who might be replaced. Kane was the obvious candidate; Foden far less so. Both were stood down, eventually, for Cole Palmer and Watkins to take their places.

Watkins ‘swore on his children’s lives’ that he knew what was coming. Still, no spoiler could dilute the joy sparked by his spin and smash. Watkins went the Full Tardelli before being gobbled up by the dozen or so he’d left on the bench nine minutes prior.

Those two touches represented half of Watkins total but it was enough for the Player of the Match award and a second consecutive Euros final for a nation feasting on such occasions after 55 years of famish. Just that last sodding hurdle….

3) France 1-3 England – 1982 World Cup

‘Cracking Start! Both the result and the performance made it England’s most promising start to any European or World Cup tournament for many years,’ enthused Football Monthly after England, without Keegan and Brooking, began their Spain ’82 campaign by beating a France team containing Platini, Giresse and Tigana.

Their tournament was only 27 seconds old when Bryan Robson volleyed in an opener for one of the fastest ever goals at a World Cup finals. France levelled in the first half but Robson netted again midway through the second period before Paul Marriner sealed victory by scoring his fifth goal in consecutive internationals.

Ron Greenwood’s men went on to win all three first group games before remaining goalless in both second group phase games against Spain and West Germany. It meant England returned home undefeated. ‘English fly home with their heads in the air’ read The Times, and ‘England out with honour intact’ said The Guardian, which was a decade before England managers were being portrayed as turnips on the front page of national newspapers.

2) Mexico 2-3 England – 2026 World Cup

The altitude; a partisan home crowd; Mexico’s daunting record at the Azteca; the prime-of-life England press pack struggling to run their 5ks at 2,200 feet above sea level… the Three Lions were almost talked into defeat before they took the field – belatedly – for their last-16 clash with the co-hosts.

Mercifully, Jude Bellingham and 14 of his mates are made of rather sterner stuff than those who really didn’t fancy going into Mexico’s backyard.

Bellingham brought all the main character energy, scoring twice in three first-half minutes, while England barely put a foot wrong, individually and collectively. Jarell Quansah mistepped – on a Mexican ankle – to get himself sent off just after half-time, but an incredible display of defensive resilience from Thomas Tuchel’s starters and finishers ensured the makeshift right-back could not be scapegoated.

To a man, England were brilliant. This brilliant.

1) England 4-1 Netherlands – Euro 96

Football was due home in 1996, and though it is currently in the midst of a 30-year delay – presumably Football travels by Northern Rail – the journey felt close to complete when England turned in what many considered to be their finest performance since 1966.

The euphoria possibly misted a few memories because though the Three Lions led at half-time thanks to Shearer’s penalty, Netherlands were coming on strong. “England really need half-time here,” said Barry Davies after the Dutch won their eighth corner. But after the break, Terry Venables’ side blew away their opponents with three goals in 11 minutes, Shearer’s second, sandwiched by a brace from Teddy Sheringham, being the highlight after a move involving his strike partner which was orchestrated by Gascoigne.

England even had time to allow Patrick Kluivert a goal which did for Scotland’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages – “the cherry on top” according to David Seaman, the man who conceded it. But regardless of whether it was a deserved consolation, as Venables put it: “We thrashed them. There’s no doubt about it.”