"Fields of Fire" kicks off in war-torn Ukraine in 1942, telling the tale of a Dynamo Kiev side forced into a series of propaganda matches against their Nazi occupiers. They are ordered to lose but repeatedly hammer the Germans and are finally forced to pay a tragic forfeit - their lives. This terrible but factual tale is the first of many landmark games examined in John Ludden's collection of milestone matches in football history. The tales are laced with wonderful characters - some good, some bad, some downright scandalous: the cherry-red shirts of Hungary romping through the 1950s; a tubby little genius called Puskas; Di Stefano and his wizards from Madrid; Busby and his tragic, but brilliant babes; and the villainous Argentinean Rattin at Wembley. Moving into the 1970s, Ludden examines Pele and his glorious team exploding in Technicolor; German glory in 1974; Argentinean skulduggery in 1978; in the 1980s we revisit the France-Germany World Cup semi-final and the infamous arrival of Diego Armando Maradona. Onto the 1990s and Gazza's famous tears in Turin and the tragic shooting of Columbian Escobar.