England's Home Losses

Notes

England's most celebrated home loss is the shattering 6-3 defeat by Hungary at Wembley Stadium in 1953.  But by then England already had suffered 22 home losses, 13 to Scotland, seven to Wales, one to united Ireland and one to the Republic of Ireland.  Hungary were not even the first side to beat England at Wembley; Scotland already had done that four times.  Nor were they the first side from outside the United Kingdom to beat England at home; the Republic of Ireland did that in 1949.  They were, however, the first foreign side to beat England at Wembley, no mean feat.

England have now lost 55 times in 379 home matches, roughly a 1 in 7 ratio.  The list of opponents who have accomplished the feat remains fairly exclusive, 18 teams if predecessor and successor nations are lumped together (Ireland and Northern Ireland, West Germany and Germany).  Croatia are the latest team to join the list, on 21 November 2007 when they sent England crashing out of the 2008 European Championship qualification.

England  have played at home against 57 teams, again counting predecessor and successor nations as one (Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro as well as the Irish and German teams already mentioned).  However, two of those teams, the Rest of Europe and the Rest of the World, were not national selections, but representative sides consisting of players drawn from several nations, and so England have played at home against 55 national sides.  They thus remain unbeaten at home by 35 of the 55 national sides they have played on English soil, approximately two-thirds of the teams they have met at home.

England have lost only six preliminary matches on home soil in major tournament play, four European Championship matches and two World Cup matches.  In European Championship play, Scotland accomplished that feat twice--once in a qualification group match and once in an intergroup playoff match--and West Germany and Denmark did it once each.  In World Cup qualification play, Italy and Germany each beat England once on English soil.

England have hosted one World Cup final tournament, in 1966, and one European Championship final tournament, in 1996, and they have yet to be beaten on home soil in major final tournament play.  They won World Cup 1966, going undefeated in six matches.  While they failed to advance from the semi-finals at European Championship 1996, they went out of the tournament only on penalty kicks after drawing 1-1 with Germany after extra time. 

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