In the early 1950s, The Hungarian national football team (most popularly known as the ‘Magical Magyars’ or ‘The Golden Team’) put together a 31-match unbeaten run that lasted over four years and included 27 victories. They became the first foreign side to beat England at Wembley in November 1953 as the popular WM formation (essentialy a 3-2-2-3) was cleverly picked apart.

The ‘Golden Team’, captained by the great Ferenc Puskas, revolutionised football and brought a highly offensive approach to the game. Hungary reached the final of the 1954 FIFA World Cup™ in Switzerland where the team’s 27-goals broke the record for most goals scored in a single tournament.

England scored 34 goals in qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.

Fabio Capello’s side moved on from the heartache of missing out on qualification for the UEFA European Championship in 2008 by sealing qualification for South Africa with two games to spare.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, upon whom so many hopes will rest this summer, was England’s top scorer with nine goals as they topped Group 6, while Theo Walcott scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 humbling of Croatia in Zagreb.

Set between 1994 and 2006, Iranian Ali Daei’s tally of 35 goals in qualifying is a FIFA World Cup™ record.

The striker hit his peak in 1998 as he became the first Asian player to feature in the UEFA Champions League with Bayern Munich, while his national team’s ultimately successful attempt to qualify for France 1998 was boosted by the now 41-year-old’s nine goals in 17 matches in the fifa World Cup qualifying campaign. Daei is also international football’s all-time highest goalscorer with 109 goals in 149 international games.

Jose Santamaria won only 36 international caps but represented different countries in the final stages of two FIFA World Cups™.

In 1952 Santamaria debuted for Uruguay, for whom he won 20 caps. His Uruguayan career included the 1954 FIFA World Cup where the reigning champions finished fourth.

The strapping defender then went on to earn 16 more appearances for Spain following a move to Real Madrid in 1957, featuring at the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile. Santamaria also coached Spain as FIFA World Cup hosts in 1982.

The former Yugoslavia played 37 FIFA World Cup™ fixtures, reaching the semi-finals in 1930 and 1962 and the quarter-finals a further four times in total.

The break-up of the country resulted in a ban from competing at UEFA EURO 92, while they were also prevented from qualifying for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Yugoslavia reappeared in France four years later along with a now-independent Croatia, whose coach Miroslav Blazevic inspired the likes of Davor Suker, Robert Prosinecki and Zvonimir Boban to a third-placed finish.

This year, Serbia and Slovenia will represent the former Balkan state in South Africa.