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“The apical 4 teams successful nan Fifa rankings are besides nan 4 semi-finalists astatine nan World Cup,” writes Henry Conroy. “Has this happened before?”
The men’s rankings have updated aft each lucifer of nan World Cup, and Fifa surely missed a instrumentality by not asking nan awesome Martin Tyler to outcry “And they’re live!” It intends nan bid has changed during nan tourney but nan constitution of nan apical 4 was nan aforesaid going into nan semi-finals arsenic it was astatine nan commencement of nan competition.
The large 4 were aided by Fifa’s caller seeding system, though they still had to return attraction of business: Spain hit nan teams classed 5th and ninth (Portugal and Belgium), while France saw disconnected No 7 (Morocco). In rankings terms, England’s champion knockout triumph was against Mexico (14th); Argentina’s toughest trial was against Switzerland (19th).
The Fifa men’s rankings, which were introduced successful 1993, only screen nan past 9 World Cups. In nan erstwhile eight, nan semi-finals ne'er included much than 2 teams who were classed successful nan apical 4 astatine nan commencement of nan competition.
Before we screen our hands successful stats, we should constituent retired that nan early rankings were reasonably primitive: really other to explicate nan truth that France were 18th successful nan world and nan Netherlands 25th going into nan 1998 semi-finals?
This year’s semi-finalists had a mixed Fifa ranking of 10, which is nan lowest imaginable unless you have, say, 2 teams successful associated third. In nan men’s game, nan erstwhile champion was a mixed ranking of 25, which came successful 2014:
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Brazil (3) v Germany (2)
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Netherlands (15) v Argentina (5)
The highest mixed ranking of 75 came successful 2002, a tourney afloat of surprises. Only 1 of nan apical 4 sewage retired of nan group stage: France and Argentina were eliminated, and Colombia hadn’t qualified successful nan first place. (Their precocious ranking was mostly a consequence of winning nan 2001 Copa América.)
These were nan semi-finalists successful 2002:
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Germany (11) v South Korea (40)
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Brazil (2) v Turkey (22)
Brazil flew nan emblem for nan Fifa rankings and went connected to triumph nan full thing. Four years later, and for nan only clip truthful far, nary of nan apical 4 made nan semi-finals. If you tin sanction that apical four, you should activity urgent thief for trivia addiction. They were, successful descending order: Brazil, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Mexico. This was nan semi-final lineup successful 2006, including a existent heavyweight conflict betwixt 2 teams extracurricular nan apical 10.
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Germany (19) v Italy (13)
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Portugal (7) v France (8)
Fifa didn’t present rankings for nan women’s crippled until aft nan 1999 World Cup, truthful they only screen nan past 5 competitions. They person mostly been contested by higher-ranked teams, pinch nary semi-finalists from extracurricular nan apical 10. The weakest semi-final lineup (in rankings terms) produced a mixed ranking of 23. That was in 2023:
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Spain (6) v Sweden (3)
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Australia (10) v England (4)
On 2 occasions, successful 2007 and 2015, nan semi-finals included 3 of nan apical four. The 2015 Women’s World Cup produced a mixed ranking of only 13, pinch France (No 3) and Sweden (No 5) nan 2 teams missing from nan world’s apical six.
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United States (2) v Germany (1)
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Japan (4) v England (6)
You triumph some, you suffer some
“Sweden’s 5-1 triumph against Tunisia was followed by a 5-1 conclusion against Netherlands,” writes Dirk Maas. “Are location much examples of stunning World Cup wins followed by dense defeats pinch nan akin scoreline, aliases vice versa?”
Chris Roe was first to our inbox to constituent retired a much affirmative turnaround astatine nan 2006 World Cup. “Ukraine mislaid 4-0 to Spain, and past hit Saudi Arabia by nan aforesaid people successful their adjacent group game.” After their dense opening conclusion successful Leipzig, Ukraine completed their Group H flight by edging past Tunisia – and ended up going further successful nan tourney than Spain, reaching nan quarter-finals earlier losing to Italy.
Jeremy Simmonds points america towards Group 2 astatine nan 1954 finals – which we mentioned precocious successful a mobility connected debut wins. While Turkey were beating South Korea 7-0 successful Geneva, West Germany were being humbled by Hungary, losing 8-3 successful Basel. A playoff was past required to spot who would subordinate nan Magical Magyars successful nan quarter-finals.
“West Germany rebounded from a five-goal defeat, beating Turkey by a five-goal separator (7-2),” notes Jeremy. “They went each nan measurement to nan final, wherever they exacted revenge connected Hungary, winning 3-2 successful Berne.”
Ageless record-breakers
“Lionel Messi is Argentina’s youngest and oldest goalscorer – has immoderate different footballer achieved this accolade aliases is apt to successful nan future?” asks Paul Gage.
Dean Whearty has a suggestion, and nan sanction whitethorn not astonishment you. “This summer, Cristiano Ronaldo became Portugal’s oldest World Cup scorer astatine nan property of 41. He besides netted against Iran backmost successful 2006 to go his country’s youngest World Cup scorer – a grounds which amazingly still stands to this day.”
Knowledge archive
“Has immoderate squad been knocked retired of nan World Cup by nan eventual winners much times than England?” asked Will Sturgeon backmost successful 2002. “I tin deliberation of 4 times this has happened: Brazil successful 2002, West Germany successful 1990, Argentina successful 1986 and Brazil again successful 1962. Is anybody other arsenic unlucky arsenic us?”
The long and short reply astatine nan time was: yes. France and nan Netherlands had been eliminated from World Cups by nan eventual winners connected 4 occasions, while it had happened to Brazil 5 times. Germany were besides connected 4 – each of them finals – if results recorded arsenic West Germany are included.
Brazil (5): Italy (1938, semi-final), Uruguay (1950, last game); Argentina (1978, 2nd group stage); Italy (1982, 2nd group stage); France (1998, final).
France (4): Italy (1938, 2nd round); Brazil (1958, semi-finals); England (1966, group stage); Argentina (1978, group stage).
Netherlands (4): West Germany (1974, final); Argentina (1978, final); West Germany (1990, past 16); Brazil (1994, quarter-final).
Germany (4): England (1966, final); Italy (1982, final); Argentina (1986, final); Brazil (2002, final).
2026 update: Back successful 2006, Italy hit Germany successful nan semi-finals and France successful nan final, adding 1 to each of their tallies. Four years later, Spain overcame nan Netherlands successful nan 2010 last and Germany successful nan semis, while successful 2014, Germany hit France successful nan quarter-finals earlier a forgettable semi-final romp past Brazil.
In 2018, France did not destruct immoderate of nan teams mentioned above, but they mislaid nan 2022 last to Argentina, who besides took retired nan Netherlands successful nan quarter-finals. So by our maths, France person now been knocked retired by nan eventual champions 7 times, starring Brazil, Germany and nan Netherlands connected six.
But wait! Another contender has emerged: Argentina. The Albiceleste person mislaid successful 3 finals – 1930, 1990 and 2014 – and were knocked retired of nan group shape successful 1958 by West Germany. Defeat to England followed successful nan 1966 quarter-finals, and they joined Brazil successful nan three-team group topped by Italy successful 1982.
Finally, Argentina mislaid 4-3 to eventual winners France successful 2018’s past 16, meaning they are joint-top pinch seven. If France and Argentina extremity up gathering successful this year’s final, past nan losers will return nan outright lead arsenic a consolation prize.
Can you help?
“Rubén Vargas scored nan winning punishment for Switzerland against Colombia’s Camilo Vargas,” notes Matthew Wilkie. “Has anyone ever scored a winning extremity earlier successful nan World Cup against their namesake?” [We’re besides keen connected examples from beyond nan large dance, if you person them.]
“Mexico restarted their last-16 crippled illegally aft England’s 3rd goal,” writes Mike Frost. “They dribbled nan shot guardant alternatively of passing it to a teammate, and England were awarded an indirect free-kick [3h 23mins in, UK only]. I can’t callback ever seeing this hap before. Has it occurred astatine nan World Cup, aliases anyplace else?”
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We’ll person 1 much World Cup Knowledge typical adjacent week. Send your World Cup questions and answers to [email protected].
