England's leading goalscorer in World Cup finals is Gary Lineker, with 10 goals spread over the 1986 and 1990 tournaments.

At 6ft 7in, Peter Crouch is the tallest player ever to play for England.

David James has been to two previous World Cup finals in 2002 and 2006, but didn't play a single second in either tournament.

Owen Hargeaves holds the record for the most England appearances as a substitute, coming on to win a cap in 25 games between 2001 and 2008.

Only two official England World Cup songs have reached number one in the charts: 'Back Home' sung by the 1970 World Cup squad and New Order's 'World In Motion in 1990. 'Three Lions 98' – a reworking of Euro 96's 'football's coming home' anthem – reached the top spot during the 1998 World Cup, while the official song, '(How Does It Feel) To Be On Top Of The World' featuring the Spice Girls, scraped in at number nine. The 1986 England squad's song, 'We've Got The Whole World At Our Feet', only got to an embarrassing 66!

Peter Shilton is the oldest player to feature for England in the World Cup finals, at 40 years and 9 months old when he captained the side against Italy in the 1990 third-place play-off.

England have never won a penalty shoot-out in the World Cup finals, prior to 2010. In 1990 they lost the semi final on penalties to West Germany and suffered penalty exits against Argentina in the second round in 1998 and Portugal in a 2006 quarter final.

Theo Walcott became the youngest scorer of a hat-trick for England when he bagged three goals in the 4-1 World Cup qualifying away win against Croatia on 10 September 2008, aged 19 years and 178 days.

The first World Cup mascot was 'World Cup Willie' – a lion used for the 1966 World Cup in England. Subsequent World Cup mascots have included an orange ('Naranjito', Spain 1982), a jalapeno pepper ('Pique', Mexico 1986) and a stick figure with a football head ('Ciao', Italy 1990). This year's mascot is a leopard with green hair, named 'Zakumi'.

England are among five teams who have gone unbeaten but not become champions in the same finals. England won three matches and drew two in 1982, exiting in the second group stage. Scotland won one match and drew two in 1974, but were eliminated in the first round, while Brazil in 1978, Cameroon in 1982 and Belgium in 1998 were the other unbeaten, non-champions.