Legendary Teams

The Busby Babes - Tragedy In Munich

Eight Manchester United players died on their way back from a European Cup quarter-final in Belgrade in 1958. When United won the European Cup ten years later, the mood was one of commemoration. Ben Lyttleton looks at this defining moment in the club's history.

Dinamo Teach Britain A Lesson, 1945

Britain failed to learn from Dinamo Moscow's innovative tactical methods during their four-game successful tour of 1945. Ben Lyttleton explains why it took over eight years for the lessons to make their impact.

Hats Off To Mr Pentland (Athletic Bilbao, Spain)

Athletic Bilbao won two league titles, four Cup finals and numerous friends while eccentric Englishman Fred Pentland coached them in the early 1930s. Luke Gosset reports on the hat-wearing wine-lover still held in high regard in Bilbao.

Zambia's new 'Dream Team'

A new team of youngsters, moulded by Zambia’s living footballing legend Kalusha Bwalya, is slowly emerging as successors to the “dream team” tag which belonged to the generation of the early 1990s, tragically killed in an air craft crash just over a decade ago.

Cameroon 1990

In terms of the general quality of football played, Italia 90 was a big disappointment. But the tournament marked a watershed in the global development of football. Ben Lyttleton looks at the emergence of the African continent on the international football scene, and in particular, Cameroon’s brilliant performance in 1990.

Wimbledon 1988

When Wimbledon stunned Liverpool to win the 1988 FA Cup final, commentator John Motson described it as "a victory for the Crazy Gang over the Culture Club". Ben Lyttleton looks at the unlikely team that somehow summed up the feeling of the time in late '80s Britain.

Dick, Kerr Ladies 1921

When Englishmen went off to fight World War I in 1914, women were thrown into traditional male roles at home, at work and on the sports field. Nowhere was this gender shift more apparent than at a Preston factory owned by two Scots, WB Dick and John Kerr, where tramway and railway equipment was made.

USA Women 1996

Over 40 million American fans saw Brandi Chastain score from the penalty spot to clinch a 5-4 shoot-out win over China in the Women's World Cup final on July 10, 1999. Then-President Bill Clinton was among the 90,000 fans at Pasadena's Rose Bowl and hailed the US team as "warriors and heroes".

Ajax 1973

Thirty years after the Dutch invented 'total football' Ben Lyttleton examines the influence of Holland's flat landscape on this groundbreaking new footballing philosophy.

Scotland 1872

Scotland played a 'passing and running' game, and in 1872, the English had never seen anything like it. Ben Lyttleton looks at the culture behind the style of football that we now all take for granted.