The Financial Gazette

Own Correspondent

With the first FIFA World Cup on African soil less than 80 days away the eyes of the world are focused on Africa. This April, to celebrate this global sporting spectacular, ESPN Classic will bring viewers the very greatest matches from the World Cup’s long and glorious history on DStv.

Airing on DStv throughout April, ESPN Classic will kick-off its special programming on the all-time-great games with the 1966 tense, exciting semi-final between England and Portugal.
There’s further classic action available to enjoy from every tournament since, including such never-to-be-forgotten encounters as 1970’s epic, action-packed final between Italy and Brazil, 1974’s clash of the titans between Brazil and Holland, and the ’74 final, which saw a controversial penalty awarded in its very first minute.
Meanwhile, the 1982 tournament provided one of the competition’s most dramatic stagings — which is why the channel is dedicating a full week in April to re-living it; right from England’s dynamic start against France (and the World Cup’s fastest-ever goal) to its dramatic, goal-filled Final and unexpected winners.
DStv viewers can also tune in for the 1986’s highlights which are showered with numerous fantastic goals; including a stunning effort from Michael Laudrup for Denmark against Uruguay and a hat-trick for England’s Gary Lineker over Poland which changed his life forever. Plus, there’s a superb encounter between France and Brazil, and quite possibly the finest third-place play-off match ever staged. Also part of ESPN Classic’s programming is the new feature; the 1990’s selection of matches which focuses on the three outstanding teams of that tournament; England, Germany and Cameroon. German captain Lothar Mattheus was at the height of his powers — and arguably possessed the hardest shot in the game.
England, meanwhile, desperately wanted to win the World Cup for their retiring manager, Bobby Robson, but came up against outstanding opponents in Africa’s charismatic Cameroon. Another highlight to look out for on ESPN Classic this month is the Rugby World Cup and internationals. It’s an indisputable sporting fact that rugby union teams from the world’s southern hemisphere — certainly during World Cups — have performed better than their counterparts “up north”.
Tune in and relive all the exciting moments of these and other past sporting spectaculars this April on ESPN Classic, channel 231, on DStv.

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