Sakshi“One life, live it up, ’cause we got one life” and the living purpose of every football lover is to watch FIFA World cup that happens every four years, okay, not the only but an important one. And being a football lover when the World cup is not happening we keep ourselves busy with digging out interesting facts about the Football matches. So, if you are looking for football facts that should also not be boring at the same time to widen your knowledge about this sport then you have come to the right place. Here I have enlisted some of the interesting facts about the most controversial matches ever happened in the history of the World cup. Along with the facts do watch the videos that have beautifully captured those stunning moments. The 7th one is epic!
1. 1950 – Uruguay Beat Brazil 2-1
The World cup of 1950 was special in multiple ways and hence has many interesting facts pinned to it. As a soccer lover, we all get thrilled by even the mention of the unprecedented finale match that held between Brazil and Uruguay during the World cup of 1950. But did you know that this World cup was not about to take place in the first place? Yeah, due to the tragic aftermath of World War II, entire Europe had collapsed economically and no one was ready to host the World Cup, it was then in 1946 Brazil came forward and took up the responsibility with one condition that the tournament will be held in 1950. Little did Brazil know it was going to host not only the World Cup but also one of the most terrific events ever occurred in sports’ history. Without further ado let us reminisce that mesmerizing moment once again.
Participation Of Countries
Around 13 nations participated in the historic tournament. In the same competition, a new format was introduced that divided the teams into four group. The teams of a group would compete with each other in order to win highest matches and later on the finale winner would make way towards the round-robin finale. No doubt, Brazil was there and along with it Spain, Sweden and Uruguay too got into the finale.
No Finale
The other unique thing about this tournament is that it is the sole World cup in history that did not see an actual “finale” with only the last match deciding the winner. However, generally, people tend to call its last match as the finale. So getting back to the match! The “finale” match was played on July 16, by Brazil and Uruguay at Rio’s Maracana stadium. Now by the time Brazil reached the finale, they had won many hearts with their splendid performance and the last one in which they defeated their two opponents by the total score of 13-2 made everyone sure that this time Brazil would be the one taking the trophy. Uruguay, on the other hand, had nothing with them but the hope. Finally, the match began!
Full Of Surprises
The stadium was filled with the voice of 174,000 people. For Brazil everything was clear, the only thing they had to do was to not to let Uruguay win. All they had to do was to earn a draw to gain victory as in the previous match Uruguay tied with Spain and was lagging behind Brazil by only a point. Match started with Uruguay limited to half of the field for over 45 minutes. Just after the few minutes of the commencement of second half, the condition of Uruguay tightened with Friaca striking goal. Just when the whole world was assured of Brazil’s victory, Uruguay turned the table around. In the 66th minute, Obdulio Varela passed the ball to Alcides Ghiggia who gave it to Juan Schiaffino. He in return, dashed the ball past Moacir Barbosa, making the score even, 1-1. The second blow to Brazil came in the 79th minute when Ghiggia hit another goal beating Bigode again. The whole Maracana was stunned with such an unexpected outcome.
2. 1966 – England Beat West Germany 4-2
Next in the line is the final match of the Tournament of 1996 that raked one of the biggest controversies till date. The tournament was held in England, the same country that invented the sport. Ironically, England who discovered the game failed to win a single World cup. When the country lost to Brazil in quarterfinals in 1962, Alf Ramsey prophesized that England would win next World cup on its soil. However, it seemed difficult as all the qualified team Brazil, Portugal, Italy, West Germany, and Soviet had made their name with their stunning performances in the tournament. Whereas Brazil was equipped with its World champions of 1962, Portugal had Eusebio who was highly in form during the tournament. On the other hand, West Germany and the Soviet Union were all set with their best team ever. Looking at the past record of England’s performance in the World cup, it was difficult to believe that the host would conquer the trophy.
Goals
There were 16 teams who participated in the tournament. Again, the teams got segregated into four groups. According to rules, among the groups, the top two teams would face each other in quarterfinals. The finale was celebrated on July 30 at Wembley Stadium with the finalists England and West Germany that was cheered by 97,000 viewers. It was Germany who scored the first goal with Helmut Haller kicking the ball past Gordon Banks, English Goalkeeper. Six minutes post the first goal, in the eighteenth minute, Bobby Moore, English captain, directed the ball into the penalty area where Geoff Hurst turned the ball in. From there on the struggle of teams to score continued till the arrival of the 78th minute. Alan Ball struck the third goal of the game by making a corner kick. England failed to have its another goal when Hurst’s shot could not reach the box however, Martin Peters compensated for it by scoring another goal. The game had finally reached the moment when it was going to be even more dramatic.