The table shows England have scored five goals or more
in 105 matches--roughly once every twelve matches they have played. That
ratio is continually declining as England play on for several reasons:
England long ago lost the supremacy in international football they enjoyed
before the Second World War as their opponents became much stronger and
brought dynamic styles of play, innovative tactical systems and higher levels
of technical ability to the game; the frequency of high-scoring matches has
decreased sharply in recent decades with the ascendancy of defence-oriented
tactics; and, finally, England now play against a much wider variety of
opponents and in many more competitive matches.
Of the 105 five-goals-or more matches, 50--a little more
than half--came in the 226 matches England played before the Second World War, a
ratio of roughly once every four or five matches. In the post-war era,
England have scored five or more goals on another 55 occasions in over 600 more
matches at this writing, which produces a ratio of about once every nine matches. It took post-war England about two and a half
times the number of matches pre-war England played to score five or more
goals almost as many times as pre-war England did.
Moreover, since the beginning of the 1980-81 season, about the time defence-oriented tactics put a universal lock on the
game, England have scored five or more goals on only 18 occasions in 0ver 300
matches at this writing, a ratio of once every 19 matches. Over
the past two decades, England's goal binges have come against teams that were
extremely weak at the time--Luxembourg, Turkey, San Marino, Finland,
Albania, Greece and Iceland--with two exceptions, the astonishing 5-1 World
Cup qualifying victory against Germany in Munich on 1 September 2001.
And again, the 5-1 demolition of the Croatian team at on 9 September 2009 at
Wembley.
In the matches England have played since their 5-0
trouncing of Greece on 17 May 1994, they have scored five or more goals only
six times--six against Luxembourg in the 1999
European Championship qualifier at Wembley, five against Germany in the
World Cup 2002 qualifier, six against Iceland in the FA Summer Tournament
in Manchester in 2004, six against Jamaica in Manchester in 2006,
another six against Andorra in June 2009 and the five against Croatia in
September 2009.
The tables above--and many others on this website--are thus
set
forth only for the sake of preserving England's record. They are of
historical interest only.
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PY/CG
England
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