20 July 1966
Prior to the completion of the group stage the bookies make Portugal 6/4 favourites , England 2nd favourites at 4/1 ,, Hungary 5/1 , Argentina 6/1 ,West Germany 6/1 , North Korea 66/1 , , with pre tournament favourites Brazil who are hanging in their by their fingertips now 100/1 ,
All today's 4 games which complete the group stage are evening 730 kick-off s but unlike now games in the same group are not finishing on the same day
England's 2-0 win v France at Wembley (98270) means they are now 13 games unbeaten and are the only team to qualify for the Semi-Final without concedding a goal (0-0,2-0&2-0) ,
Banks , Cohen , Wilson , Stiles , JCharlton, Moore , Callaghan, Greaves , RCharlton Hunt ,Peters
In Group 2 Spain are eliminated losing 2-1 at Villa Park in front of 42187 ,
Brazil only hope of surviving rested on Bulgaria beating Hungary 2-0 didn't materialise as Hungary won 3-1 at Old Trafford with a crowd of 24129
Group 4 winners USSR change 9 players but still beat Chile 2-1 with 16027 at Roker Park ensuring that North Korea are group runners-up
There were questions in The Italian Parliament about their elimination and the manner in losing to North Korea
Italy had already booked their accommodation for The Quarter Final at The Jesuit retreat on Merseyside BUT North Korea hadn't , so The FA stepped in to arrange for North Korea to stay where Italy thought they were staying
The 4 groups now complete
Group1 England 5pts Uruguay 4pts , Mexico 2pts France 1pt
Group2 WGermany 5pts Argentina 5pts Spain 2pts Switzerland 0
Group3 Portugal 6 PTS , Hungary 4pts , Brazil 2pts Bulgaria 0
Group 4 USSR 6 PTS North Korea 3pts Italy 2pts Chile 1pt
Which leads to The Quarter Finals which all all scheduled for the same day and same kick-off time of 3pm Saturday
England v Argentina (Wembley)
West Germany v Uruguay ( Sheffield)
Portugal v North Korea (Goodison Park )
USSR v Hungary (Old Trafford)
Definitely different times with all 4 games at the same time, the importance and money from television not yet realised