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Swastikas, Sir Alf and Second Choice Steve – read the England story, as told by Guardian and Observer writers since 1870

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142 years before England set out for Euro 2012 led by a £20m winger with no league assists or goals, the Guardian reported on their first ever match, and a proper stand-out performer.

"On Saturday, a football match took place at the Oval, Kennington, between picked elevens of England and Scotland. The game excited an extraordinary amount of interest, the ground being crowded with spectators. Both teams consisted of expert players, and the contest was a most exciting one. Mr W.H. Gladstone, the junior lord of the Treasury, did good service on the part of the Scottish team. Each side succeeded in scoring a goal."

Whatever Euro 2012 brings, the story of the England team will always be one of football's most engaging – a story of how they rose from a group of 19th century public schoolboys, became champions of the world, then descended into a tormented string of bizarre near misses, false dawns and botched quarter-finals.

Based on original reports from the Guardian and Observer archives, England: 20 Defining Matches – part of our Football Classics ebook series – revisits how both papers covered some of the national team's most significant moments since that first game in 1870 - from the 1934 Battle of Highbury and the Nazi salutes in Berlin to Maradona, Michael Owen, and Kevin Keegan's darkest hour.

And at the story's centre is 1966 - the moment English football has been trying to live up to ever since. Among the Observer's coverage of that day in London were first-hand accounts from revellers outside the team's hotel – men, women and children lost in the moment.

"As the team arrived, arm-linked cordons of police popped open like seams when a crowd of more than 6,000 mobbed the players. Cries of 'England', 'Ramsey', 'Moore', 'Stiles', 'Charlton', greeted them when they came out on a balcony. Traffic in the West End was at a complete standstill. Thousands of cars and pedestrians jostled around Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar and Parliament Squares.

"Teenagers who had not been to the match clambered into the Trafalgar Square fountains singing: 'We gave them a bloody good hiding and so say all of us.' The pubs were full – and cinemas and theatres empty.

"Groups of people danced and sang in the streets. An AA spokesman said: 'It's like VE night, election night and New Year's Eve all rolled into one.' 'Why be modest?' asked a City office clerk. 'It was a damned fine victory. We've not had much to boast about since Harold Wilson came to power. But he's a football fan if nothing else - he ought to give Alf Ramsey a knighthood for this.'"

England: 20 defining matches is available for £3 for the Kindle. More Football Classics ebooks, featuring some of England's biggest club sides, are due for release before the 2012-13 season. For more information on the Guardian Shorts series, see our FAQ, and for other titles available, click here. Read More

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