THE ROAD TO RUSSIA: 1978
The 11th edition of the World Cup was played in Argentina from June 1 to 25 in 1978, the hosts winning the tournament by beating the Netherlands 3-1 in Buenos Aires.
It was the first World Cup title for Argentina, who became the fifth team (after Uruguay, Italy, England and West Germany), to be both hosts and world champions.
Iran and Tunisia made their first appearances in the finals. This was also the last World Cup tournament to field 16 teams, 15 teams (plus hosts) allowed to qualify since the first World Cup in 1930. From the next World Cup in Spain, Fifa expanded the tournament to 24 teams.
Despite a boycott threatened by several nations in protest against the military regime, all the qualifiers assembled in Argentina for the 1978 finals.
The same format as 1974 was adopted — two group phases and no knockout — and controversy surrounded Argentina’s passage into the final. The Argentines, for whom the long-haired Mario Kempes was a revelation up front, romped to a dubious 60 win over Peru in their final match of the second phase to oust Brazil on goal differ- ence.
Holland thrashed Austria 51 to reach the final for the second successive year, but, crucially, they were without their master Johan Cruyff, who had stayed at home.
Once again the Dutch were beaten, to delight of the 77,260 crowd in Buenos Aires. Argentina took the lead through Kempes after 37 minutes before subsitute Dirk Nanninga equalised. In extra time Kempes restored Argentina's lead and Daniel Bertoni made it 3-1, leaving captain Daniel Passarella to lift Argentina’s first World Cup. In the match played for third place Brazil beat Italy 21.
In all, 102 goals were scored by 63 different players in 38 matches at an average of 2.68 goals per match. With six goals, Kempes was the top scorer in the tournament.