26 DAYS TO GO
THE MARACANA BLOW THE ‘MYSTERY MEN’ STUN AZZURRI THE MIRACLE OF BERN THE GIANT KILLERS THE LIONS ROAR
Uruguay beat Brazil in last match of final round
Brazil
The format saw the winners of four groups qualify for the final stage and the team topping the group would be declared the winners. Brazil had already humiliated Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1 and going into the decider against Uruguay they were overwhelming favourites. So sure were the local newspapers of a victory that their early editions declared the Samba Boys the winners with them leading 1-0. The anticipated celebration also saw 22 victory medals embossed with names of Brazilian players. Playing in front of 200,000 people at Maracana, Uruguay equalised through Juan
Alberto Schiaffino before taking the lead through Alcides Ghiggia.
In a 2010 ESPN documentary about World Cup legends, Ghiggia said, “The Maracana has been silenced by three people -- The Pope, Frank Sinatra and me.” The defeat is known as the ‘Maracana Blow’. North Korea beat Italy in group stage
England
The secretive nation, dubbed as the ‘Mystery Men’, became the first Asian team to make it to the World Cup quarter-finals after they stunned Italy 1-0 to finish second in their group behind Soviet Union. Drawn in a tough group with Chile being the fourth side, it was expected that they will be steamrolled but their grit saw them through. West Germany beat Hungary in final
Switzerland
West Germany were still collecting pieces in the aftermath of World War II and were considered rank outsiders. In the final, West Germany were up against Ferenc Puskas-led Hungary, the best team in the world who were unbeaten in four years.
The match was termed as the biggest mismatch in the history of football. No one thought West Germany would go so deep into the tournament leave alone enter the final.
On a rain-soaked field, at the final whistle, West Germany emerged 3-2 victors after trailing 0-2 in the first 10 minutes.
Helmut Rahn scored twice, including the winner in the 84th minute as Germany achieved the impossible. Rightly, the German march to the title is known as the ‘Miracle of Bern’.
German football went from strength to strength after the win. Not only that, academic papers have been written on the effect of the victory in 1954 on the collective German psyche. They lost to Soviet Union 3-0 and drew Chile 1-1. The match against Italy was practically a shootout with winner advancing. North Korea took the lead through Pak Doo-ik and defended out of their skins. Italy had eggs on their faces, literally and North Korea won hearts.
In the quarters, they took a 3-0 lead against Portugal before succumbing to pressure and Eusebio’s hat-trick to lose 3-5. South Korea stun Spain in pulsating quarter-final
South Korea & Japan
South Korea had already beaten Portugal and Poland in round robin games to top their pool. In the round of 16 they faced one of the World Cup’s best teams, Italy. South Korea beat them 2-1 in extra-time.
In the quarters, up against Spain, everyone thought South Korea’s bandwagon would finally come to a halt, but it wasn’t to be as they won
5-3 in penalties. But the fairy-tale run ended with a 0-1 loss to Germany in the Cameroon beat Argentina in group game
HOSTS: HOSTS: HOSTS: HOSTS: HOSTS:
Italy
Nowadays the hosts get the honour of playing the first match of the tournament. But back then the defending champions kicked off the tournament. The 1986 champions Argentina, led by the great Diego Maradona, were vanquished by an unheralded team largely made up of journeymen from the French lower divisions.
The match was also used as a catapult by other African nations. In 90 minutes African football, once derided for being all about juju magic, became credible. The result was celebrated not only in Cameroon, where impromptu street parties erupted across the nation but also across Africa.
Such was the brute force about Cameroon’s play that they ended the match with nine men. “I got a kick from a guy against Cameroon that nearly took my head off,” recalled Maradona recently about the physicality of the tie.”
semifinals.
The round of 16 and the quarter-final were marred with wrong refereeing decisions with Italy and Spain both complaining that referees favoured the hosts. By the end of it, the South Korean players earned themselves iconic status and many used it as a launchpad towards successful careers abroad.
Manager Guss Hiddink went on to become a national treasure, was afforded honorary citizenship and Gwangju Stadium was renamed the Guus Hiddink Stadium.
Forwards Eder and Nani were surprise absentees from Portugal’s World Cup squad with national team coach Fernando Santos opting instead for the youth of Andre Silva and Goncalo Guedes to play alongside superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
Also missing from the 23-man squad was Andre Gomes who, like Eder and Nani, played at the 2016 European championships won by the Portuguese.
Injured Porto midfielder Danilo Pereira was also missing from the line-up. At 33, five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo and 34-year-old Ricardo Quaresma are the only players over 30 in the Portuguese attack.
Eder scored the extra-time winning goal in the Euro 2016 final against France but he was desperately out of form for Lokomotiv Moscow this season, scoring just four goals as his club side claimed the Russian Premier League title. Nani, 31 and his country’s third most-capped player behind Ronaldo and Luis Figo with 112 appearances, has played just 24 matches all season with Lazio. “From a human perspective, it’s very hard to discard players who were with us at Euro 2016,” admitted 63-year-old coach Santos.
“They have all contributed to writing a brilliant chapter in the history of Portuguese football. But I had to make choices that for me make a better puzzle.”
Winger Guedes, 21, has impressed on loan at Valencia
LISBON:
star Dimitri Payet was left out of France’s World Cup squad announced by coach Didier Deschamps, completing a miserable 24 hours for him. The former West Ham United player was forced off with a hamstring injury in the first half of Marseille’s Europa League final defeat against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, and that fitness doubt persuaded Deschamps to leave him out of the squad of 23.
“Dimitri Payet was a serious candidate for a place in the squad. He played the first half-hour (against Atletico), but he aggravated his injury, and the recovery time needed for that type of injury is three weeks,” Deschamps said after revealing his squad live on TF1’s evening news programme.
“But as it is a muscle injury, there is a risk of a relapse.” Payet was one of France’s stars at Euro 2016, when they reached the final as hosts before losing to Portugal. But he has also fallen victim to the number of attacking options Defenders: Midfielders:
Forwards: Andre Silva, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gelson Martins, Goncalo Guedes, Ricardo Quaresma.
from Paris Saint-Germain this season, having struggled in France last term.
Andre Silva, 22, scored eight goals in 14 games during AC Milan’s Europa League campaign, which proved enough to see him called up despite only starting seven Serie A matches.
Santos called up 21-year-old Benfica defender Ruben Dias for the first time, but Monaco’s Rony Lopes missed out despite a breakthrough season in Ligue 1 with 13 goals from midfield.
Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves also failed to make the final list, despite starting a friendly win in March over Egypt.
Portugal are in Group B at the World Cup, which starts in Russia on June 14, along with former champions Spain, Morocco and Iran. Before the finals, they will play friendlies against Tunisia, Belgium and Algeria.
PARIS:Marseille
Defenders: Lucas Hernandez, Presnel Kimpembe, Benjamin Mendy, Adil Rami, Djibril Sidibe, Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane. Midfielders: N’Golo Kante, Blaise Matuidi, Steven N’Zonzi, Paul Pogba, Corentin Tolisso. Forwards: Ousmane Dembele, Nabil Fekir, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Thomas Lemar, Kylian Mbappe, Florian Thauvin.
available to Deschamps, who did call up Payet’s Marseille teammate Florian Thauvin and Lyon captain Nabil Fekir.
Elsewhere, Manchester City left-back Benjamin Mendy was called up despite having hardly featured for Pep Guardiola’s side since returning from a serious knee injury. “It always seems impossible until it’s done”, wrote Mendy on Twitter.