Stories from the archive

The football journal.

Player profiles, World Cup history and tactical ideas for supporters who remember the game through its shirts.

A striker, an impossible angle and the split second that turned technique into folklore.

Mexico 86 was not a tournament Diego Maradona played in. It was a tournament he bent to his will.

The most gifted team of its era saved its most complete performance for the final.

A tournament of rescue acts ended with the only image Roberto Baggio could not control.

Two headers in Paris transformed pressure into permanence.

The run-up, the bend, the release: a repeatable piece of engineering disguised as routine.

He rarely seemed to tackle because he had already removed the need.

The idea was simple to describe and almost impossible to contain: space belongs to whoever understands it first.

No unnecessary touches: the ball arrived, the defender was moved, the net was found.

From the edge of the area, a centre-back delivered the goal that completed Barcelona's European dream.

Italy entered the second group stage under pressure. They left Spain as world champions.