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England's goalless draw with Ghana at the 2026 World Cup does not even come close to sitting among their worst results at the competition.

The Three Lions have a long history of being over-confident, under-powered and underwhelming at the World Cup, with group stage games against the low seeds acting as a thorn in their side since they first set foot in the competition 76 years ago.

Let's relive some of them…

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USA 1-0 England (1950)

The USA couldn't even afford a photographer who could centre a team photo in frame, apparently (Image credit: Getty Images)

Still the leader in the clubhouse after all these years, at least when it comes to World Cups.

England were at the tournament for the very first time having previous seen the whole thing as beneath them, and got off to a winning start with a 2-0 victory over Chile.

The United States had appeared twice before, they were ultimately a team of part-timers who were expected just to make up the numbers in Brazil. To their credit, though, they led Spain for much of the game in their opener before conceding three goals in the final ten minutes.

Even still, nobody expected this. Joe Gaetjens gave the US the lead late on in the first half, and an England side packed with stars like Billy Wright, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen failed to find a response for Walter Winterbottom's side. England subsequently lost to Spain and went out at the first hurdle.

Bulgaria 0-0 England (1962)

Wilter Winterbottom's England were at it again in 1962 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Just four years before their famous World Cup triumph, England made hard work of getting out of their group at the 1962 World Cup.

Hungary beat the Three Lions 2-1 in their opener in Chile, which was bad enough. But at least the Hungarians were a big name in those days, even if their golden generation was a decade or so behind them; they were one of the four teams to make it Euro 1964 after a 29-team qualification campaign.

No such claim can be made for Bulgaria, who were appearing at a major tournament for the first time and had just been pumped 6-1 by Hungary in the previous game, while England claimed a 3-1 win over Argentina.

Yes, England knew going in that a draw against Bulgaria would get them out of the group on goal average.

But with Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Greaves among the forwards, they still would have expected better than a bore draw that has been described as 'one of the worst internationals ever seen' and 'without question the most boring, sterile match England had ever contested'.

Morocco 0-0 England (1986)

England captain Bryan Robson injured his shoulder at the 1986 World Cup (Image credit: Getty Images)

The 1986 World Cup was not a vintage affair for England.

Bobby Robson's side lost 1-0 to a Portugal side making their first appearance at the tournament since 1966, but who had reached the Euros semi-finals two years prior. Not ideal by any means, but England could just about live with it.

But the next group game, against a Morocco side with just one previous World Cup appearance to their name, was an absolute nightmare in the sweltering Mexican heat.

First, star man and captain Bryan Robson went off with a recurring shoulder injury that ruled him out of the rest of the summer. Then, Ray Wilkins was sent off for chucking the ball at the referee in a fury. By the time the final whistle came, England were just glad to get out of Monterrey with a clean sheet and a point.

Slightly ridiculously, England managed to make it out of the group regardless after beating Poland 3-0 in their third and final group game, They of course went on to come undone at the hands and feet of Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals.

Romania 2-1 England (1998)

Romania stunned England late on in France in 1998 (Image credit: Getty Images)

This is a marginal one, to be completely fair, because Romania had some wonderful players in the 1990s and had reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup four years earlier. It wasn't a shock that they were quite good.

On the other hand: Romania had also lost all three of their games at Euro 96 two years earlier, and England would have been expecting to top Group G out in France.

But their hopes were effectively killed off by this defeat, which came courtesy of Chelsea man Dan Petrescu's 90th minute winner.

The silver lining for England was the emergence of an 18-year-old Michael Owen, we was brilliant from the bench and became the first teenager ever to score for England at a major tournament.

That slip-up ultimately meant England finished second in the group and ended up playing Argentina in the round of 16...and we all know what happened there.

USA 1-1 England and Algeria 0-0 England (2010)

Rob Green chucked it in his own net against the USA (Image credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

South Africa marked the true beginning of the 'England are always rubbish in the groups' trope that has plagued almost every one of their major tournament appearances ever since.

Everything looked rosy for Fabio Capello's men when Steven Gerrard fired them ahead against the USA after just four minutes - only for surprise goalkeeper selection Rob Green to have an absolute stinker when trying to keep out the most routine of long-range strikes from Clint Dempsey.

After missing a fleet of chances to go back ahead, England rolled on to their next opponents, Algeria, who had been AFCON semi-finalists earlier that year but would surely be no match for England's golden generation.

This was the Wayne Rooney 'nice to see your own fans booing you' game, though. A bizarrely nervy England were absolutely hopeless, and never really threatened the Algerian goal throughout the 90 minutes.

A 1-0 win over Slovenia in a similar uninspired performance secured second place in the group, which one again had disastrous implications for England: instead of getting a more inviting round of encounter with Ghana, they were hammered 4-1 by Germany.

Costa Rica 0-0 England (2014)

Wayne Rooney and co stank out the joint at the 2014 World Cup (Image credit: Getty Images)

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was absolutely rancid for Roy Hodgson's England.

Back-to-back 2-1 defeats to Italy and Uruguay meant England were already eliminated from the competition before they even kicked off against Costa Rica, who had already claimed the scalps of both Uruguay and Italy to go top of the group.

That meant a draw would put the Central American side through as group leaders, while England had nothing to play for except pride.

Well, at least one of the teams achieved their objective.

England finished bottom of the group after another flat performance ended in goalless draw - their worst showing at a World Cup since 1958.