UAE conquerors draw on the spirit of 1966

A group of North Korean supporters in Abu Dhabi are hoping their nation can draw on the spirit of 1966 when they play their first game on Tuesday. Although England supporters will remember 1966 as the year their country hosted and won the tournament, the year is also remembered for the North Korean team who knocked out Italy with a 1-0 win. They even led their quarter-final against Portugal 3-0 after just 22 minutes before the great Eusebio scored four goals to lift the Portuguese to a 5-3 win.

And a group of labourers from North Korea living in a labour camp on Reem Island seem well aware of what is at stake this time around for their nation. "North Korea, number one," says one. "Brazil, North Korea," another says, apparently referring to the country's opening match. James Montague, a freelance journalist and author of the book When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone, who had access to the North Korean team during a training camp in Switzerland, thinks they may shake up the tournament again. North Korea, ranked 105th in the world by Fifa, qualified from Asia Group 2, beating the UAE 2-1 along the way in Abu Dhabi in September 2008 and again in Pyongyang.

"I'm telling everybody who listens, put money on North Korea getting out of that group," says Mr Montague. "They play football like they play policy: very defensively." In North Korea "there is the same sort of excitement for the players" as there was for those who went to England in 1966, says Daniel Gordon, director of the 2002 documentary The Game of Their Lives about the surviving members of that team.

"Everyone thinks they will finish bottom and leak goals," he says. "But it's football. You never know." * Additional reporting by Kareem Shaheen