Phil Ascough

Eighty-four years since the first tournament, forty-eight years since England won it, the World Cup has its critics but time stands still when your team plays. Hope and horror, passion and pain – and that’s just the draw for the final groups! Never Mind the Penalties is the ultimate collection of World Cup teasers, pulling together the highs and lows, the match-winners and the madness, the bizarre and the beautiful from football’s greatest tournament. Test your mates in the pub, liven up the pre-match warm-up, deliver a little half-time entertainment, and create your own penalty shoot-out. Keep a copy in your pocket as you count down to Brazil 2014 – it’s an essential part of your World Cup build-up. Author and journalist Phil Ascough has trawled through his own memories, picked the brains of fellow followers and produced a compilation designed to furrow a few eyebrows and also raise a smile. Get your FIFA thinking caps on – it’s quiz time!