With the countdown on to this summer's World Cup, we've launched a new series going behind the scenes of some of the big moments and untold stories of recent tournaments, from 2002 to 2022.

England's abysmal exit

John Cross: It's ironic sometimes how something good comes out of something so bad, and England's World Cup campaign in Brazil in 2014 was as bad as it gets.

Bad to such an extent that Roy Hodgson's Three Lions managed to exit the group stages with a game to spare. It was the first time England had not made it out of the group round since 1958.

At the time we didn't know the true extent of how humbled and humiliated England had found themselves.

The press pack were on a flight back to our base for the tournament in Rio de Janeiro from Sao Paulo, having watched a dismal England lose to Uruguay. I will always remember and be haunted by certain things and that Uruguay game is one of them - the journey back was just so grey and depressing.

Luis Suarez had returned from a month out following knee surgery to score twice. Wayne Rooney had equalised, with his first ever goal at a World Cup, but it wasn't to be as the former Liverpool and Barcelona striker had the last laugh, scoring a superb winner six minutes from time.

I'm a huge, passionate England fan, desperate for England to do well. Desperate. And I just remember thinking, I cannot believe this. I cannot believe it. As we boarded the plane for the hour-long flight back to Rio, we were left clinging to the hope that Italy would beat Costa Rica to give England a slender hope of still making it to the best round.

How naive was that?

We touched down, turned on our phones and discovered Costa Rica had beaten the Italians 1-0 in Recife. England's Group D of 'Death' has proved terminal. The day was so depressing, so miserable, so defeatist.

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The Hodgson inquest

Jeremy Cross: As is tradition, the England manager and captain held a farewell press conference at the team's training base in Urca. It was more like a group inquest, to be honest.

I'm not saying we all flew to Brazil thinking we were going to win the World Cup - no one thought that, but we thought we'd get out of the group. Just as a journalist having the privilege of going to cover a World Cup, you know you're probably only going to get a handful in your career because you only come around over four years.

You want to go there and you want England to do well and there was always this misconception that the press, especially the tabloid press, were always looking to stick their boot in on England. Here, we simply had no choice.

Hodgson had a face like thunder. He didn't want to be there. Neither did Steven Gerrard.

I got on pretty well with him and he was pretty good with us as captain, he was a great player, but he knew just knew that was his last World Cup, and it had ended so pitifully really, which was, which was a shame because he had such an outstanding career. It was a sombre occasion.

Roy, you know, he could sort of get a bit, not lose his temper, but he could tell when he was getting tetchy with certain questions. After all, the big theme for the going out inquest was if would Roy Hodgson would take England to the next tournament, which was the 2016 Euros in France. It's an uncomfortable place to be, but you've got to do your job.

We'd gone out of the group stage with a game to spare. It's embarrassing, really, and humiliating from an England point of view, so you've got to cover all aspects of the tournament and ask the tough questions.

The readers want to know where it went wrong, though I can't recall Hodgson coming up with many answers, and obviously with the benefit of hindsight it was the FA's big mistake to keep him given what happened in Nice against Iceland two years down the line.

However, all was not lost...

Exit drinks on the FA

Jeremy Cross: It is another tradition amongst the press pack that once England go out of a tournament, we take full advantage by using it as an excuse to drown our sorrows, to contemplate where it all went wrong.

Being a long way from home, away from loved ones for weeks on end, results in great friendships being made. So, we did the only thing we knew to do - we filed pieces from the Hodgson/Gerrard press conference then headed into Rio.

Ipanema is one of the more exclusive suburbs of Rio. An affluent, fashionable neighbourhood and beach in the southern area of the city known for its scenic beauty and upscale bohemian atmosphere.

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Imagine the surprise when me and a colleague from another newspaper were strolling down one of the bustling streets and noticed a senior FA employee come into view.

We half expected a rollocking - these were not uncommon in this period, when England were so bad - but actually it was quite the opposite.

The person in question greeted us like two old friends, and there was embarrassment that England were heading home, despite having a dead rubber final group game to go through.

So he got the company credit card out, ushered us into the nearest bar and ordered some drinks.

It turned out to be an evening at the FA's expense. And with that, the employee in question bid his farewells. He was heading home in a few days with the rest of the England party, while we were heading to cover the knockout stages, without a Lion in sight.

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Germany 'go easy' on hosts Brazil... in 7-1 thrashing

John Cross: I'll tell you one thing - hosts Brazil went into that World Cup with the weight of their nation on their shoulders. There were huge expectations, honestly, but my word, they did very, very well to get as far as they did.

There was that classic Round of 16 encounter against Chile, but they rode their luck and somewhere along the way I think there was a realisation, this Germany team is way better than us.

When the two great nations finally met and Germany started pumping Brazil at the semi-final stage, I remember sitting, watching in the press box and looking to a couple of people either side of me thinking, what on Earth is going on here?

Brazil were hopeless, an absolute disorganised shambles, they didn't have any talent and Germany's goals were flying in. They looked an absolute mess.

The fallout afterwards was huge in the media and on the radio and TV. They were going crazy. I think they were ready to deport the whole squad in half a shame and embarrassment, it was that horrendous.

The Brazilians definitely didn't want to speak in the mixed zone, the interview area, after the game, but the Germans did, obviously, because they were loving it. 5-0 halftime, 7-1 by the end.

It felt like they eased up in the second half, which kind of was the theme, and I spoke to Mats Hummels, who basically told me 'we didn't want to embarrass or humiliate the Brazilian side and so we spoke at half time'.

Famously, there was a statement from Hummels the next day to say, 'I've been taken out of context. It's not what I meant', you know, the big denial on social media.

It's the kind of thing that looks worse in black and white and for Brazil, seeing one of the opposition players effectively saying, 'we went easy on you after winning 7-1, maybe we could have got 10 by the end', it's quite a statement. But believe you me, they could have done.