Who is popular today?

Nations League updates from the 5pm BST game in BudapestFeel free to drop a mail to scott.murray@theguardian.comNovember 25 1953, and Ferenc Puskás, Sándor Kocsis, Nándor Hidegkuti, Zoltán Czibor, József Bozsik, Gyula Grosics et al rock up to Wembley, where they set about putting English football firmly in its place. You’d have thought the 6-3 humiliation visited upon Walter Winterbottom’s team would have led to a period of reflection, regrouping and realignment … but no. England blithely put the thrashing down to a bad day at the office, and few lessons were learned. Off to the Népstadion they went, six months later, to play the return fixture on May 23 1954 with pretty much exactly the same tactical plan. Here’s how that panned out, then, in the words of the pre-MBM-era Manchester Guardian.GOAL! Hungary 1-0 England (Lantos 8): “Lantos took a free kick ten yards outside the penalty area and with a drive which had to be seen to be believed, put the ball high into the corner of the net. It crashed in like a bullet.” Continue reading...