Looking back
05 Jun 2018 19:35 IST
Mario Gotze, a second-half substitute in the final, was clinical in converting a half-chance in the 113th minute, securing Germany its fourth world title.
05 Jun 2018 19:31 IST
Heavily inspired by the tiki-taka football of Pep Guardiola-coached Barcelona, Spain benefited from its possession-based game as it stymied opponents, conceding just twice in the tournament.
05 Jun 2018 19:24 IST
Zinedine Zidane was enjoying the most wonderful of swansongs, guiding his team to another Cup final. There, too, he gave France the early lead, but Marco Materazzi had something else in mind for the master...
05 Jun 2018 19:17 IST
Guus Hiddink and his fiery South Koreans made World Cup history, becoming the first team from Asia to reach the semifinals of the tournament.
05 Jun 2018 19:16 IST
Ronaldo was believed to have suffered a fit just before the final. He was obviously out of sorts, and Zidane and Emanuel Petit had no problem in giving France its first World Cup title.
05 Jun 2018 19:08 IST
Diego Maradona was caught with strains of ephedrine in a random dope test after the Nigeria game. A 15-month suspension followed, ending Argentina’s World Cup dreams and also halting Maradona’s chequered but seditious career.
05 Jun 2018 00:39 IST
Cameroon surprised defending champion Argentina in the first match of Italia ’90, kicking off a wonderful run to the last eight stage of the World Cup.
05 Jun 2018 00:36 IST
Diego Maradona single-handedly delivered Argentina its second World Cup title, scoring five goals and setting up several others.
03 Jun 2018 15:09 IST
Striker Paolo Rossi, whose head was on the chopping block, back home, prior to the tournament, scored a hat-trick against Brazil to help Italy reach the final!
03 Jun 2018 15:07 IST
The tournament was marred by further corruption charges as Peru went down rather ingloriously to Argentina in its last league game, providing a safe passage for the host into the knockout phase.
22 May 2018 16:13 IST
Holland was to meet Germany in the final, and a major party was planned at the Dutch team hotel on the eve of the game, in anticipation of victory. The final next day was a fiasco, as Paul Breitner and Gerd Muller cancelled out Johan Neeskens’ early penalty and Germany clinched its second title.
England’s Gordon Banks pulled off one of his and the World Cup’s greatest saves in hot and humid Mexico in 1970 and it remains in the game’s folklore decades later.
Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick in the final to help England defeat West Germany and lift its only World Cup till date. But it was North Korea which captured the imagination of the world.
With Pele out of reckoning after two games of constant hacking by the opponents, Amarildo gelled well with Garrincha and delivered Brazil its second title.
The star of Brazil’s WC-winning show was the then unknown 17-year-old Pele who saw off Wales in the quarterfinals, scored a hat-trick in the semis and then announced himself to the world with a magical goal against the host in the final.
Now called the ‘Battle of Berne’, the quarterfinal game between Brazil and Hungary is regarded as the dirtiest match in World Cup history, a day when Brazil opted for brutality over beauty and Hungary was only too happy to join in. The result, a 4-2 victory for Hungary, is a barely remembered footnote.
Brazil, playing in white, unexpectedly lost to Uruguay in the final. So upset was the host that it forgot to give Uruguay the trophy. The national team refused to wear white ever again.
19 May 2018 01:21 IST
With war clouds hovering over Europe, the 1938 championship was awarded to France and only 15 teams competed after Austria pulled out in the last minute following its annexation by Germany.
22 May 2018 16:14 IST
Dictator Mussolini left no stone unturned to ensure victory for host Italy. Sending his message loud and clear, the dictator even sent a personal note to the team to “win or die”, and another to coach Pozzo that read “May God help you if you do not win”.
18 May 2018 19:41 IST
The football World Cup is just round the corner. Every edition of the previous cups has had its moments to remember. We start with the first-ever edition that was held in Uruguay in 1930.
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