Nov 26, 1969: three European ties – Celtic v Benfica, Spartak Trnava v Galatasaray, and PSV v Roma – are all decided not by goals, replays or penalties, but by the toss of a coin. We walk through each match, then rewind to early FA Cup and European Cup coin-toss “firsts,” Liverpool–Köln and Italy USSR, and trace how football moved from lots and replays to away goals, penalty shoot-outs and golden goals – and ask whether a 50/50 flip was ever fair.

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Nov 25, 1951: Belgium beat the Netherlands 7–6 in Rotterdam in the wildest edition of the Derby der Lage Landen. We set the scene in a pre-UEFA, pre-European Cup, pre-professional era, explore where Belgian and Dutch football stood in 1951, dive into the chaos of a 13-goal game, and place this scoreline among the highest-scoring senior internationals – and in the long, neighbourly rivalry between the Low Countries.

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Nov 24, 1956: at the Melbourne Olympics, the Soviet Union beat a “Unified” German team 2–1 in the first round of the football tournament – a match played weeks after Soviet tanks crushed Hungary’s uprising and with defending champions Hungary absent. We explore how Eastern Bloc “state amateurs” came to dominate Olympic football, why Germany’s team was united in name only, and how this night helped turn the Games into a Cold War football stage.

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Nov 23, 1996: Ali Dia, supposedly George Weah’s cousin and a Senegalese international, comes off the bench for Southampton v Leeds at The Dell… and is subbed off 53 minutes later. We trace how a phone call convinced Graeme Souness to hand him a deal, what actually happened that day, where Dia went next, and how his story fits into a wider history of football hoaxes and fake “wonderkids.”

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Nov 22, 2022: Argentina 1–2 Saudi Arabia in Lusail – most surprising World Cup win ever. We track Argentina’s journey from years of Messi heartbreak to Copa América 2021 and a 36-game unbeaten run, Saudi Arabia’s modest World Cup record, the tactical chaos of Lusail, Scaloni’s reset around Messi, and how this defeat helped forge world champions – while ranking where it sits among the game’s greatest upsets at World Cups and beyond.

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Nov 21, 1965: North Korea and Australia meet on neutral ground in Phnom Penh to decide the only World Cup place reserved for all of Asia, Africa and Oceania. We unpack the African boycott, why Cambodia hosted, how Pak Doo-ik’s opener here foreshadowed his goal vs Italy in 1966, and how Korea DPR’s “Chollima” run from Cambodia to the England ’66 quarter-finals contrasts with the rest of their football history – including their modern strength in women’s youth football.

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Nov 20, 1924: Ebenezer Cobb Morley, the Victorian solicitor who helped found the FA and drafted its original Laws, passes aged 93. We trace his journey from Hull to Barnes, his letter that created the FA, the six 1863 meetings at Freemasons’ Tavern, the first 13 Laws, his role in stabilizing the early FA and presenting the first FA Cup – and how his legal mind gave football a rulebook sturdy enough to last 160 years.

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Nov 19, 1991: Manchester United vs Crvena Zvezda in a one-legged European Super Cup at Old Trafford. We rewind to Red Star’s 1991 European Cup triumph over Rangers, Dresden, Bayern and Marseille; United’s Cup Winners’ Cup win over Barcelona; the looming Premier League breakaway; and the Yugoslav wars that made a return leg in Belgrade impossible. One McClair goal, one trophy – and two clubs heading into very different futures.

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Nov 18, 2000: the first Manchester derby in four years – and the 125th league meeting between City and United. We trace the rivalry back to Newton Heath and Ardwick, through title deciders and relegations, before landing at Maine Road: City newly back under Joe Royle, United top of the league, Ferguson at a wedding, Steve McClaren in charge, and David Beckham winning it with a free-kick after 95 seconds past Alf-Inge Haaland.

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Nov 17, 1993: the wildest final night of qualifying for USA ’94. Italy edge Portugal in Group 1; England concede after 8.3 seconds to San Marino; France collapse to Bulgaria in Paris; Wales hit the bar vs Romania; Spain’s ten men dump out Euro champs Denmark while Ireland cling on in Belfast; Greece complete a first-ever qualification; and in Buenos Aires, Argentina survive a playoff vs Australia after a 0–5 loss to Colombia and Maradona’s dramatic recall.

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