The Blizzard

This week on Greatest Games, Michael Walker joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember Northern Ireland’s return to Windsor Park after three and a half years of international football exile.

The Northern Ireland national team had been playing their “home” games up and down England since their last Windsor Park international in October 1971 against the Soviet Union. This game against Yugoslavia brought Northern Ireland out of football isolation...

On this week’s Greatest Games Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller are joined by Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the 1954 exhibition match between English champions Wolverhampton Wanderers and Hungarian champions Budapest Honvéd.

Under the Molineux floodlights and broadcast on the BBC, excitement swept across Wolverhampton and the entire nation for this one...

We’re off to a cup final, everyone! Faye Carruthers joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the 1988 Littlewoods Challenge Cup Final between Luton Town and Arsenal.

Defending champions Arsenal were considered heavy favourites, but Ray Harford’s Luton Town had been performing well in the First Division and were raring for this cup final...

David Jones joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember the second 1997 FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford.

About the panel:

Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine...

It’s a World Cup final edition of Greatest Games! Herbie Sykes joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss Italy’s first World Cup triumph on home soil in 1934.

Mussolini’s Italy greeted the world for the second Fifa World Cup competition, the first to feature teams from three continents. In a tournament designed to highlight Italian superiority and values, the only team left standing in their way of lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy – then called “Victory” – was Czechoslovakia...

Back to Wembley for this week’s Greatest Games as  Maciej Iwański joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss a famous draw between England and Poland in October 1973. 

After suffering defeat in Chorzow in June, Alf Ramsey’s side needed to win in order to avoid missing the World Cup finals for the first time since their first entry in 1950...

Rory Smith joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller on this week’s Greatest Games to reflect on one of football’s most highly-anticipated fixtures to have never even happened – the postponed 2018 Copa Libertadores final second-leg between River Plate and Boca Juniors.

A rousing 2-2 draw at La Bombonera had perfectly set-up a winner-takes-all Copa Libertadores superclásico final – the like of which never to have been witnessed before in the 58-year history of the competition...

This week on Greatest Games, Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller discuss a 1954 World Cup semi-final with Martin Da Cruz – Hungary 4 Uruguay 2. 

Going into the match in Lausanne, Switzerland, Hungary’s ‘Mighty Magyars’ hadn’t lost a full international since 1950 – winning Olympic gold and thrashing England a couple of times in that time. But of course, Uruguay were yet to lost a World Cup fixture themselves, winning the inaugural competition in 1930 and then in 1950...

Leon Mann is this week’s guest on Greatest Games, joining Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to remember the 1991 FA Cup semi-final North London Derby between Terry Venables’ Tottenham and George Graham’s Arsenal.

Rather than traipsing the sides up to the midlands, the tie became the first-ever FA Cup semi-final to be hosted at Wembley. This meant a first Wembley trip for Leon and a grand setting to further encourage Mr Paul Gascoigne for the occasion...

This week on Greatest Games, Brian Homewood joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to discuss the 1981 Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final first-leg between West Ham United and Dinamo Tbilisi.

So to the Boleyn Ground for this one, where the ardent West Ham crowd – then used to cruising second division and on the verge of promotion – warmly welcomed the Soviet Cup winners from Georgia...