England and Scotland must be out of this World to succeed

A statistical look at England and Scotland’s previous World Cup finals appearances, now the 23rd edition of the tournament is now underway...

- By Simon Carter

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England have only failed to qualify for the World Cup finals three times since they first competed in 1950: 1974 (West Germany), 1978 (Argentina) and 1994 (USA).

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England have only failed to progress beyond the group stage at three World Cup finals - 1950, 1958 and 2014.

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A record eight different players scored for England at the 2022 World Cup finals: Marcus Rashford (3, pictured above), Bukayo Saka (3, pictured right), Harry Kane (2), Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling.

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Goalkeeper Peter Shilton is the oldest captain in World Cup finals history, aged 40 years and 292 days v Italy in 1990.

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England have played the USA three times in World Cup finals, failing to win any of them, losing 1-0 in 1950, drawing 1-1 in 2010 and drawing 0-0 in 2022.

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Peter Shilton shares the record for most World Cup finals clean sheets, with Fabien Barthez (France).

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