The basic equation for achieving victory in football has never sparked too much debate. Boiled down to its primary elements, the game is about locating the back of the net more often than your opponents, but making that happen is another question altogether. Far from being a matter of fielding more strikers than your rivals, the key has always been to choose the attacking model that suits a team's build-up play and forging partnerships between forwards with complementary strengths - an inexact science that can spell the difference between glory and disaster.

This season, the best example of all can be found in Spain. Not the Ronaldinho-Samuel Eto'o match-up at Barcelona, nor the Raul-Ruud van Nistelrooij combination at Real Madrid , but a much less-vaunted duo further to the north of whom little was expected when La Liga kicked off last August. The pair of forwards who have sent shivers through defences up and down the land play for Racing Santander, in fact, with giant Serbian striker Nikola Zigic (2m 02cm) teaming up with the diminutive former Spain international Pedro Munitis (1m 67) to form the perfect union.

Their 'little and large' show has been working wonders this year, accounting for 13 league goals in total, of which Zigic has struck nine. "They're two players who complete each other thanks to their respective qualities," explained Mallorca coach Gregorio Manzano before his side took on Racing in December. "In the air and in one-on-one situations, they're already achieving great things. And without even knowing each other!"

Four months on from that game, the two men lead the line as if they had been playing together all their lives, Zigic making the most of Munitis' runs to get his name on the scoresheet and vice versa. The Serb has enjoyed the greater luck in front of goal, but even in quieter periods he has been quick to drag defenders out of position and open up space for team-mates, with Munitis top of the list.

Thanks to the burgeoning relationship between their skilful frontmen, Racing have swapped their traditional image as relegation contenders for an unfamiliar new role as European hopefuls. In seventh position with eight matches left to play, the Racinguistas are on track for their best ever league placing since they finished eighth in 1936, proving that strike duos as effective as Zigic and Munitis are like gold dust.

Over at Manchester United , supporters have been more fortunate with the conveyor belt of attacking talent that has passed through the club, from George Best to Wayne Rooney and from Mark Hughes to Cristiano Ronaldo . True as that may be, however, the Red Devils have rarely been blessed with a partnership as explosive as the one that terrorised English rearguards in the 1998/99 campaign. Responsible for 35 league goals between them, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole proved equally incisive on the European scene, and by the end of the season United were celebrating victory on three fronts, having triumphed in the UEFA Champions League, the Premiership and the FA Cup.

Magic squares
The two-man attack has passionate devotees all across the globe, but it is far from being the only tactic to have prospered down the years. In fact, some of world football's most thrilling line-ups have wreaked havoc with four players shouldering goal-scoring responsibilities, with the Magic Magyars of the 1950s a prime example. Long considered the greatest team on the planet before losing the 1954 FIFA World Cup™ Final, Hungary shot to stardom courtesy of a fearsome foursome composed of Zoltan Czibor, Nandor Hidegkuti, Sandor Kocsis and the Galloping Major himself, Ferenc Puskas .

Together, those men wrote the greatest pages in the history of Hungarian football, securing an Olympic title in 1952, finishing runners-up in the FIFA World Cup and seducing fans far beyond the country's borders with their revolutionary approach. Hungary's moment in the sun proved fleeting, of course, yet three of their foraging forwards continued to light up the continent at top Spanish outfits, with Puskas becoming a legend at Real Madrid and both Czibor and Kocsis serving Barcelona with distinction. Only Hidegkuti never left his homeland to pursue a glittering club career.

The magic may have abandoned the Magyars at the end of the 1950s, but it duly resurfaced in France three decades later as Les Bleus coach Michel Hidalgo planned his assault on the 1982 FIFA World Cup. Placing his faith in four attacking midfielders (Michel Platini, Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana and Bernard Genghini), Hidalgo could barely have known he was about to change the French game forever. His side were eliminated at the semi-final stage, but the Carré Magique (Magic Square) was born, and when Luis Fernandez replaced Genghini two years later the process was complete. As a result, Les Bleus lifted the 1984 UEFA European Championship trophy and grabbed third place at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

For all their obvious talents, though, neither the golden generation headed by Puskas nor the artists accompanying Platini ever captured the global crown. Zinedine Zidane and company eventually delivered France to the promised land in 1998, but the Hungarians look destined to wait a long time yet.

Goal-scoring machine
If fielding four offensive players was a risk, then audacity was taken to a new level by Argentinian club River Plate in the 1940s. Taking on Club Atletico Platense in June 1942, the Millionarios took the bold step of unleashing Juan Carlos Munoz, Jose Manuel Moreno, Adolfo Pedernera, Angel Labruna and Felix Loustau in the same side for the first time. Five forwards known for supreme technique and a deadly eye for goal, they combined so stunningly that Eduardo Borocoto, a journalist for sports magazine El Grafico, enthusiastically told his readers he had witnessed "a machine" that day.

With coach Renato Cesarini pulling the levers, the five constituent parts of la Maquina operated in perfect synergy for almost a decade, helping the club claim national titles in 1942 and 1945, not to mention their two runners-up spots in between. Leading the charge, Labruna bagged 102 goals for the prolific capital outfit, while his comrades-in-arms Pedernera, Loustau, Munoz and Moreno registered 66, 41, 39 and 28 respectively.

A joy to behold at their flowing best, la Maquina won over admirers in the strangest places too. Even Ernesto Lazati, a midfielder for sworn enemy Boca Juniors , confessed to having been enchanted after a derby in 1942. "You can take on la Maquina with the intention of winning, but as a lover of the game I'd prefer to sit in the stands to get a better view of their play," he said.

Just as the River Plate machine combined success with beauty, many other tactical approaches have led teams down victory road while earning a place in the hearts of neutral spectators. And on that score, the prize for the most ambitious vision of all must go to former Ajax and Netherlands trainer Rinus Michels, who passed away in 2005 . The Dutch mastermind will forever be remembered as the brains behind the concept of 'total football', a system in which everyone defends… and everyone attacks.