On this day 8 July

Battered Battiston

What is it about German goalkeepers?

 

The year is 1982, the setting is Sevilla's Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, the occasion is the World Cup semi-final. The man who would dominate the following day's headlines? A German goalkeeper. Obviously. With the game at 1-1, France threw on Patrick Battiston, a defender who probably didn't expect to be through on goal ten minutes later. He certainly didn't expect to be unconscious on a stretcher two minutes later, after an unpunished Harold Schumacher foul resulted in Battiston slipping into a coma, damaging his vertebrae and losing two teeth. Schumacher later offered to "pay for the crowns" in a less than remorseful post-match apology. Still, at least the Germans got what they deserved, when they, er, won on penalties. Ah...

The nature of war has led to some fantastically named battles, but how does the War of the Sicilian Vespers grab you? Bizarrely, the 20-year campaign started when a Sicilian woman was harassed by a Frenchman in Palermo, and today in 1282 saw the relatively insignificant Battle of Malta. Essentially a battle between the Knights of Aragon and the Kings of France (who were finally forced to give up Sicilan rule) it ended in 1302 with the signing of the peace treaty of Caltabellota.

So raise a bottle of Singha beer and wail Suk San Wan Keut! as they do in Thailand to shoe-string wizard Dario Gradi (67), the footloose Kevin Bacon (50), and crack-smoking loser Beck (38).