The End of the World (Cup)

It’s no small irony that the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, although almost universally hailed as one of the best tournaments ever, is destined to retain a unique place in football history, not for all its great games and great goals, but because of one match when, to put it at its mildest, the sublime gave way to the ridiculous.

Over the years, your correspondent has been lucky to be present for some of football’s most seismic occasions, games when you knew you were witnessing a story unfolding which would endure far beyond the following morning’s headlines.

Looking on from the press box in mounting astonishment at ‘The Miracle Of Istanbul’ in 2005, when Liverpool came back from the dead to win the Champions League against AC Milan, was one; seeing ZZ blow his top at the World Cup final in the Olympiastadion in Berlin a year later, as France virtually handed the trophy to Italy, was another.