Alfie, you under-appreciate Bulgaria’s victory over Germany in ‘94. Prior to that year, Bulgaria had never won a game at the World Cup. They started the tournament losing 3-0 to Nigeria. Meanwhile many thought that Germany’s team in ‘94 was better than the one that won the World Cup in ‘90.
Reminds me of England, many thought that England were as good if not better in 1970 than they'd been in '66 when they beat West Germany in the final, yet in '70 the Germans beat them in the quarter final
The fact that we're still celebrating our participation in a World Cup from nearly 30 years ago (the previous week was the 29th anniversery of the 2:1 win over France in the decisive qualifier game) just shows you how bad the state of Bulgarian football is. And today, most of the Bulgarian football has been ruled by the same players, who were playing a pivotal role in USA '94 - they may be heroes as players, but are villains as executives. Sure, Bulgaria participated in 2 Euros and 1 World Cup since then, but there wasn't anything to brag for (though Bulgaria was close to advance in Euro 96) - instead we've lost 6-1 to Spain in France '98 and 5-0 to Sweden in Euro 04. Now, we barely beat "titans" like Luxembourg and Gibraltar (bloody Gibraltar). What next - losing to San Marino?
@@ivaneurope I feel like it's not just football. Bulgaria still celebrates being the oldest country in Europe while the rest of the continent gives zero shits (correct me if I'm wrong tho)
England's Right Back in the 1-0 defeat to USA in 1950 was so personally ashamed of the defeat, he determined to right all the wrongs. He didn't do half bad, managing Ipswich from Third Division to winning the First Division. Oh and leading England to World Cup Glory in 1966
If you haven't seen it before, you should check out the video FIFA did with the US keeper from that game. He basically said he had a great game and that England were the stronger team. He clearly had a lot of respect for them.
Read in a book I had years ago called "Sixty Memorable Matches" that the telegraph going back to New York, for transmission to London reportedly was queried at the time, with it assumed that "England 0 USA 1" was a misprint and that it should have read "England 10 USA 1".....
@@user-yc3fw6vq5n Anything is possible! They did draw with the USA in 2010 though and got knocked out in the next round…. They’ll beat Senegal, though France in the Quarters might be a bridge too far (or not)
@@purplehaze689 USA pulled an upset against England by drawing with them in this World Cup. USA upsetting England is the only consistent thing that makes England win World Cups.
Northern Ireland beating Spain 1-0 in 1982 in Spain was huge, especially playing with 10 men for the last 30 mins, a brilliant pure defensive display... I vividly remember 40 years in watching it on TV with my Irish grandad, he was going crazy in his armchair, cheering every clearance, haha
Japan also beat Germany and Canada were very unlucky not to get something off Belgium yesterday they were the better team in my view and had they managed to convert that penalty they may well have ended up winning the game
@@youngdolo8 should have would have could have.... Doesn't matter in the end. They didn't. They'll likely win the next two games if they play that well. But who knows.
Germany arnt a good team they went out at group stage last world cup losing to Mexico and Korea. Terrible in the euros, struggled in qualifing losing to teams like Macedonia. Losing to Japan(a team which majority play in Germany) is no massive suprise
Argentina eventually went on to win the World Cup, after losing to Saudi Arabia. In the thumbnail, that loss paired with Spain's loss to Switzerland in 2010 was an omen!
I'm surprised you didn't mention the other big upset in 1950 when Uruguay beat the hosts Brazil in the final. Okay, so Uruguay were a good team, but Brazil were the huge favourites to win and there were newspapers printed celebrating the win in advance. The win was supposed to put Brazil on the world's stage. It's not an exaggeration to say that the whole country was shook by the result and suicides went way up. They were so ashamed by the defeat that they literally changed their home kit from all white to the yellow-blue-white we know today.
@@ecashman although Costa Rica is finished I fear, it was against Spain at least 😂😂so I wouldn’t call that embarrassing If it was against Japan then maybe
Argentina has a history of getting upset. Let’s not forget their World Cup 2018 match against Iceland. Though it ended in a draw, it shook the football world. Nobody expected a small Nordic country to pull off a tie against one of the world’s best.
Croatia in 98'. Only 3 years after the war in the Balkans ended, Croatia beat arguably the greatest Germany team ever 3-0. They finished 3rd in their first ever World Cup.
@@soundscape26 you’re right, I wasn’t suggesting Japan should be included here, they’re literally one of, if not the best Asian team. Still an upset though
How about Poland's 1974 campaign culminating in them winning the 3rd place? They had won the Olympic tournament in 1972, that's true, but that medal wasn't really highly regarded as these were usually seen as a playground for the Eastern Bloc countries. Then they caused an upset eliminating England, but they still were ranked pretty low on the totem pole coming to the WC, especially given that their group featured Italy (1970 runner-up) and Argentina. Yet Poland beat them both decisively.
Scotland losing to Peru in 1978 was a shock, then we went even further by holding Iran to a draw. As if that wasn’t enough we then demolished the Netherlands to make it 3 shocks in a row!
It has to be Germany losing to Algeria. This game was such a shock it lead to the infamous Germany v Austria game and lead FIFA to change the rules on the final group games.
Yes indeed that there have been some FIFA World Cup shocks in the tournament's history which included my beloved France getting shockingly defeated by Senegal when I was just nine years old and already there have been two shocking results which were Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia and Germany 1-2 Japan,good friends!!!🙏
This World Cup has tons of upsets Argentina vs Saudi Arabia, England vs USA,Japan vs Germany AND Japan vs Spain, Morocco vs Belgium, and Tunisia vs France.
One of the biggest upsets ever. Germany took the short straw against Brazil more often than not. Sure, a win was not off the cards but Brazil was clear favourite. Especially after the absolute abysmal performances against Algeria and France where without Neuer we would had an quarters exit at best.
@@gandalf_thegrey lol, I'm brazilian and never considered Brazil favorite to win against that Germany. In fact, Brazil was very criticized at that time, and would not have its two best players in the match (Neymar and Thiago Silva)
@@gandalf_thegrey I disagree Brazil were favorites, they looked terrible all tournament long. They were lucky against Croatia, Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
One upset you didn't mention even in honorable mentions was México beating Czechoslovakia in 1962, a result that is severely underrated even in México itself. México had never won a single game at a World Cup previously, having at the time a record of 1 draw and 10 losses (getting battered in almost all of those). Further more, Czechoslovakia reached the final of that World Cup so they were a good team in that very same tournament, unlike some of the cases you mentioned in which the superior team had an overall bad tournament (England in 1950, Italy in 1966, France in 2002). Lastly, the way the game transpired also makes it even more astonishing since Czech player Václav Mašek scored the fastest World Cup goal (a record it mantained for 40 years) just 15 seconds into the match. Yet México still beat them solidly 3-1, despite having to climb a mountain of bad history and being down basically since the clock started ticking. Btw one small correction, Argentina didn't have the record for most unbeaten games in international football, Italy was slightly better as they went 37 games unbeaten from 2018 to 2021.
Hi Alfie, a video about players who save their best football for world cups would be a great video. Players like Ochoa, Enner Valencia, even Shaqiri depending on how much the discrepancy between their club football level and international football level intrigues you. Thanks for your great videos always!
What about South Korea 2-0 Germany in 2018 🤔 I believe it also was a shocking one. Germany being World Cup holders and winning Confederations Cup a year before were definitely expected to qualify, but this game changed everything
That one wasn't too shocking compared to the ones in the video as South Korea were already known to be decent and Mexico had already beaten Germany earlier.
@@TequilaToothpick South Korea were not decent. 2018 World Cup was a terrible one, performance wise from Korea. They offered nothing against Sweden, got one goal out of nothing against Mexico, and were, I believe, the third worst team in regards to fair play. Germany, while wounded, still should have 100% beaten South Korea on that day, and yet they did not
A lot of people don't know this but in the world cup 1950, USA almost got another upset against Spain. USA were winning 1-0 till the 81st minute until finally Spain scored. USA beating Colombia 2-1 in 1994 is another upset. That colombian squad were one of the favorites to win the world cup. Cameroon 1-0 win over defending world champions Argentina in 1990 with only 9 men on Cameroons side is a big shocker!
For the DPRK win against Italy, you could've mentioned just how impressive it was that the Korean team managed to beat the Italians only a decade after losing an entire 20% of their population, much of that civilian, to South Korean and American warfare. That extra detail really adds layers to what the North Korean team pulled off in 1966, it's like if a Syrian team was to upset Argentina or somebody in 2030.
@philipmichalke9577 Yeah ig so, they did have aid from like all the west in rebuilding though while the DPRK had some aid from the Soviet Union and a bunch of heavy sanctions from the west
Norway draw 2-2 to Marocco and 1-1 to Scotland in the 2 first games in there group. So they had to beat 94 WC winners Brazil at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille to stay in the WC. Brazil was 1-0 up with 10 min left in the game when Tore André Flo and Kjetil Rekdal score to win Norway the game. It's the biggest win in norwegian football history. In Norway it's call "the miracle in Marseille"
Uruguay over Brazil 1950, West Germany over Hungary 1954, North Korea over Italy 1966, Algeria over West Germany 1982, Cameroon over Argentina 1990, Bulgaria over Germany 1994, Senegal over France 2002, South Korea over Italy and Spain in 2002, South Korea over Germany 2018, Saudi Arabia over Argentina 2022, Japan over Germany and Spain 2022, South Korea over Portugal 2022, Morocco over Belgium, Spain and Portugal 2022.
Another curious data, is that Costa Rica´s players worth was the smallest of the whole tournament. At least 1000x less than all of its rivals. Nowadays it remains similar, but still giving good performance.
Honorable Mentions: Turkey 2002: After a slow start, they finished third by defeating the host (Japan in R16 and South Korea in 3rd place match). They also had easy, but grueling encounter, after France and Argentina got grouped (which was eventually replaced by Sweden and Senegal, with the latter won that game). Ukraine in 2006: Making the debut as independent country, they reached the quarterfinal after had an easy encounter with Switzerland and the opponent missed all penalty shootout kicks. Paraguay in 2010: Having topped the group that contained Italy, Paraguay defeated Japan on penalties and had narrowly eliminated by Spain through controversial fashion in quarters.
Hello again, followed your channel a lot through the Euros, sorry love football, but only follow the big competitions. Back again for the World Cup, thank you for all the great videoes
Yesterday I saw a tweet which asked whether Olivier Giroud was in the top 50, or even in the top 20 strikers of all time, which i found absolutely ridicilous. Could you do a video about how recency bias has absolutely melted some peoples brains?
Whatever about WC upsets in terms of isolated results the WC is the one tournament where no genuine outsider has ever won the tournament unlike Greece winning the 2004 Euros for example
I was just thinking about this... I was thinking " Hey... There should be a video indicating some of the greatest upsets in world cup"... And here we are...
Nicely done... In club football, Norwich beating Bayern Munich in Munich in the 90s must be up there...they rarely lost at home in European competitions...
Few moments felt more patriotic than the day I learned that the USMNT had actually beaten England in a World Cup once. You can also then add the number of British-won Super Bowls (which remains nil) and that quickly becomes a 3-1-0 head-to-head record in our favor (if you include armed conflicts). Who really needs a proper soccer pyramid when you're always on top?
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now. The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore. How they were very close to moving to ireland How they went up the English football leagues. It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
DAY 33: Hey Alfie, could you do a video on the life, career, controversies and tragedy of Justin Fashanu. It'd be your best video yet and it's a criminally underheard story. ❤️
Gotta be USA over England in 1950. USA was a team all amatuer part timers like gravediggers ,postman and couple of college kids with no league to play in. Why England were one of the best teams with some English legends in it.
Would love to see a video of the most surprising nation that failed to qualify from each confederation for as many World Cups back that you’re willing to research
I think everyone overlooks South Korea's victory over Germany in the previous world cup. In terms of ELO its one of the biggest upsets of all time in World Cup history, but it never gets mentioned in these conversations.
I think that Slovakia knocking out Italy in South Africa 2010 could have at least gotten an honourable mention. Italy were the reigning World Champions at the time and only needed a draw to progress to the round of 16. Although, surprisingly they started off their World Cup defense with two 1-1 draws with Paraguay and New Zealand respectively. Buffon, who was the regular starting goalie only played in the first game with Paraguay and was replaced by Marchetti for the other two games. Slovakia were playing in their first World Cup since Czechoslovakia split and needed to win after drawing with New Zealand and losing to Paraguay. Italy fell behind 2-0 before pulling one back. Then late in the game Vitteck would put Slovakia 3-1 up. Quagliarella would make it 3-2 and Italy would come agonisingly close to tying it up in injury time. But it was not to be. Slovakia would finish second in the group with 4 points behind Paraguay with 5. New Zealand would finish third with 3 from three draws and Italy would finish bottom-last with only 2 points.
As I recall: New Zealand managing not to lose to Italy was especially seen as a big upset at the time. Italy were world champions and had a very strong squad with Buffon, Cannavaro, Chiellini, de Rossi, Zambrotta, Pepe, etc. But they went home without a win.
@@danieleyre8913 I don't think Buffon played after the first game with Paraguay. I think he got injured and was replaced by Federico Marchetti. Still, Italy was fancied to progress from that group which didn't materialize.
@@danieleyre8913 I think had he been fit, Italy may have just have managed to make it out of the group. Although, frankly speaking, their pre-World Cup form had not been impressive.They didn't win a single game until after the World Cup.
A contender would be Denmark beating Uruguay 6-1 in 1986. Uruguay was a powerhouse of World Cup in those days and Denmark was participating in their first World Cup ever....
France doing so poor in the 2002 World Cup was the reason i believe that the champions getting an automatic berth in the following WC was scraped and everyone other than the hosts since that WC has had to go through a qualifying campaign.
To be honest even the hosts won't be assured an automatic berth(s) - it had to be confirmed that the US, Canada and Mexico would qualify automatically long after they were awarded hosting rights. Moreover the host berths will be directly taken from the confederation (or confederations if the bid is inter-confederation) of the host nation or nations, meaning that for CONCACAF in 2026 there will be only 3 guaranteed berths left and they will have the chance to have 2 more teams subject of an inter-confederation playoff (which includes every confederation, sans UEFA, plus one more team from the host confederation)
@@ishaandw CONCACAF will get 6 guaranteed berths, which also includes the 3 berths reserved for the hosts. AFC will get 8, CAF - 9, COMNEBOL - 6, OFC - 1 (the first time Oceania has guaranteed berth) and UEFA - 15; the remaining 2 quotas will be determined via inter-confederation play-off comprising of 1 team from each confederation except for UEFA + an additional team from the host confederation.
In the inaugural 1930 tournament Brazil were expected to progress from their group with Yugoslavia and Bolivia, however lost to Yugoslavia meaning they didn’t get out their group. In 1938 Cuba drew 3-3 with Romania meaning the tie went to a replay, with Cuba progressing to the quarter-finals where they lost 8-0 to Sweden. Not sure if Cuba beating Romania was considered an upset back then but I’m guessing it was Also in the 1950 final (well the last round was a group, but this final group game was to decide who won the title) there was big expectation that Brazil would beat Uruguay, but Uruguay ended up as champions.
1998: Brazil had a big expectation to defend the World Cup, but after Ronaldo's controversy, France smacked them 3-0 and lift the World Cup at home soil. France had beaten the previous finalist Italy on penalties.
The France team in 2010 was the worst one that I've ever seen because: 1.Thierry Henry's Hand of God (France should not qualify to the World Cup). 2.Patrice Evra and Nicolas Anelka is a poor guy.
It depends on what happens onwards. If Argentina still makes it to the quarters , and Saudi loses last 2 game, the impact of the Saudi upset is minimized
Ireland's win over Italy in USA 94 wasnt as big a shock as you make it out to be as of April 94's FIFA World Rankings had Italy in 13th and the Republic in 17th place one place below England
I'm surprised that you would rank Saudi Arabia beating Argentina that low, given the Saudis record at World Cups, having only won 2 World Cup matches since they first qualified in 1994, both of those at that tournament.
Alfie, you under-appreciate Bulgaria’s victory over Germany in ‘94. Prior to that year, Bulgaria had never won a game at the World Cup. They started the tournament losing 3-0 to Nigeria.
Meanwhile many thought that Germany’s team in ‘94 was better than the one that won the World Cup in ‘90.
Reminds me of England, many thought that England were as good if not better in 1970 than they'd been in '66 when they beat West Germany in the final, yet in '70 the Germans beat them in the quarter final
@@rohithraman6488 thanks, who/whatever poisoned Gordon Banks
The fact that we're still celebrating our participation in a World Cup from nearly 30 years ago (the previous week was the 29th anniversery of the 2:1 win over France in the decisive qualifier game) just shows you how bad the state of Bulgarian football is. And today, most of the Bulgarian football has been ruled by the same players, who were playing a pivotal role in USA '94 - they may be heroes as players, but are villains as executives.
Sure, Bulgaria participated in 2 Euros and 1 World Cup since then, but there wasn't anything to brag for (though Bulgaria was close to advance in Euro 96) - instead we've lost 6-1 to Spain in France '98 and 5-0 to Sweden in Euro 04. Now, we barely beat "titans" like Luxembourg and Gibraltar (bloody Gibraltar). What next - losing to San Marino?
@@ivaneurope I feel like it's not just football. Bulgaria still celebrates being the oldest country in Europe while the rest of the continent gives zero shits (correct me if I'm wrong tho)
In the 21th century they had berbatov at least but since then it is going down
England's Right Back in the 1-0 defeat to USA in 1950 was so personally ashamed of the defeat, he determined to right all the wrongs. He didn't do half bad, managing Ipswich from Third Division to winning the First Division. Oh and leading England to World Cup Glory in 1966
If you haven't seen it before, you should check out the video FIFA did with the US keeper from that game. He basically said he had a great game and that England were the stronger team. He clearly had a lot of respect for them.
Read in a book I had years ago called "Sixty Memorable Matches" that the telegraph going back to New York, for transmission to London reportedly was queried at the time, with it assumed that "England 0 USA 1" was a misprint and that it should have read "England 10 USA 1".....
Maybe that means England will win this World Cup!
@@user-yc3fw6vq5n Anything is possible! They did draw with the USA in 2010 though and got knocked out in the next round…. They’ll beat Senegal, though France in the Quarters might be a bridge too far (or not)
@@purplehaze689 USA pulled an upset against England by drawing with them in this World Cup. USA upsetting England is the only consistent thing that makes England win World Cups.
That Senegal victory over France in 2002 made stars of so many of their players. RIP Papa Bouba Diop
Northern Ireland beating Spain 1-0 in 1982 in Spain was huge, especially playing with 10 men for the last 30 mins, a brilliant pure defensive display... I vividly remember 40 years in watching it on TV with my Irish grandad, he was going crazy in his armchair, cheering every clearance, haha
Imagine If George Best Played in that game
Japan also beat Germany and Canada were very unlucky not to get something off Belgium yesterday they were the better team in my view and had they managed to convert that penalty they may well have ended up winning the game
Canada dominated yesterday. They were pretty anxiously up front though, they had 22 chances and didn't score any.
Canada should've won about 6-1. Their finishing was brutal and Davies spaffed a glorious chance.
@@youngdolo8 No they should've not lol
@@youngdolo8 should have would have could have.... Doesn't matter in the end. They didn't. They'll likely win the next two games if they play that well. But who knows.
Germany arnt a good team they went out at group stage last world cup losing to Mexico and Korea. Terrible in the euros, struggled in qualifing losing to teams like Macedonia. Losing to Japan(a team which majority play in Germany) is no massive suprise
Slovakia knocking out world champions Italy during 2010 WC was also quite an upset
Argentina eventually went on to win the World Cup, after losing to Saudi Arabia. In the thumbnail, that loss paired with Spain's loss to Switzerland in 2010 was an omen!
I still remember that 2002 Senegal opening game, Senegal were exciting to watch and full of energy.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the other big upset in 1950 when Uruguay beat the hosts Brazil in the final. Okay, so Uruguay were a good team, but Brazil were the huge favourites to win and there were newspapers printed celebrating the win in advance. The win was supposed to put Brazil on the world's stage. It's not an exaggeration to say that the whole country was shook by the result and suicides went way up. They were so ashamed by the defeat that they literally changed their home kit from all white to the yellow-blue-white we know today.
Damn, the so called football blood run-through ruined by uruguay
Also the last stage of that World Cup was a group stage. Brazil only needed to draw that game to win the World Cup
A while ago you reviewed the most embarrassing scores for all Prem teams. Can u do the same for the World Cup teams? Loving the videos boss.
Costa Rica's might have just happened
@@ecashman although Costa Rica is finished I fear, it was against Spain at least 😂😂so I wouldn’t call that embarrassing
If it was against Japan then maybe
Spain requests you don't remind them of 2014.
@@ecashman Yes but no, as they had another 0-7 defeat on the 70s
Another honorary mention should go to Brazil 1- Norway 2 at the 1998 World Cup
Yeah but Brazil was already qualified
Argentina has a history of getting upset. Let’s not forget their World Cup 2018 match against Iceland. Though it ended in a draw, it shook the football world. Nobody expected a small Nordic country to pull off a tie against one of the world’s best.
Just shows how overrated and overhyped Argentina are.
I don't think many were surprised by Iceland after they beat England in 2016.
@@TequilaToothpick Exactly.
@@circle1552badly aged comment
@@circle1552badly aged comment
In 66 my dad informed me that North Korea v Portugal was a last 8 match at Everton.. only 16 teams entered the tournament..
Still a great video
Croatia in 98'. Only 3 years after the war in the Balkans ended, Croatia beat arguably the greatest Germany team ever 3-0. They finished 3rd in their first ever World Cup.
Very fitting video after the two games we just saw in Qatar 😂😂 🇸🇦🇯🇵
Saudi and Japan > Prime Brazil
Japan beating Germany was surely an upset but I wouldn't consider it a shock similar to those featured in the video.
@@soundscape26 you’re right, I wasn’t suggesting Japan should be included here, they’re literally one of, if not the best Asian team. Still an upset though
Haha
Loved the Madjer reference. He scored a backheel goal against Bayern for our first Champions League final win
And now Argentina won the worldcup 🎉🥳
How about Poland's 1974 campaign culminating in them winning the 3rd place? They had won the Olympic tournament in 1972, that's true, but that medal wasn't really highly regarded as these were usually seen as a playground for the Eastern Bloc countries. Then they caused an upset eliminating England, but they still were ranked pretty low on the totem pole coming to the WC, especially given that their group featured Italy (1970 runner-up) and Argentina. Yet Poland beat them both decisively.
Alfie: 0:41
Italy: Am I a joke to you
Boy oh boy is it time to update this list!
Alfie, I hope you're ready for that terrible day when you will have finally used every extant photo of Freddy Adu.
Scotland losing to Peru in 1978 was a shock, then we went even further by holding Iran to a draw. As if that wasn’t enough we then demolished the Netherlands to make it 3 shocks in a row!
It has to be Germany losing to Algeria. This game was such a shock it lead to the infamous Germany v Austria game and lead FIFA to change the rules on the final group games.
Yes indeed that there have been some FIFA World Cup shocks in the tournament's history which included my beloved France getting shockingly defeated by Senegal when I was just nine years old and already there have been two shocking results which were Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia and Germany 1-2 Japan,good friends!!!🙏
Yep
I know it was a 1-1 draw, but I remember world champions Italy not managing to beat New Zealand in 2010 being seen a big upset at the time.
This World Cup has tons of upsets Argentina vs Saudi Arabia, England vs USA,Japan vs Germany AND Japan vs Spain, Morocco vs Belgium, and Tunisia vs France.
Yep, exactly. Hey, maybe that means England will win this world cup!
@@user-yc3fw6vq5n Hary Kane misses
I don't think it's an upset per se, in terms of the win, but the most shocking WC result I've seen played out is Germany 7, Brazil 1 😳
One of the biggest upsets ever.
Germany took the short straw against Brazil more often than not. Sure, a win was not off the cards but Brazil was clear favourite. Especially after the absolute abysmal performances against Algeria and France where without Neuer we would had an quarters exit at best.
Funny coincidence: at the time of writing (before this comment), there were 7 likes and 1 comment
@@wangsengsin2527 That's brilliant! Who saw that coming?! 😲😄
@@gandalf_thegrey lol, I'm brazilian and never considered Brazil favorite to win against that Germany. In fact, Brazil was very criticized at that time, and would not have its two best players in the match (Neymar and Thiago Silva)
@@gandalf_thegrey I disagree Brazil were favorites, they looked terrible all tournament long. They were lucky against Croatia, Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
One upset you didn't mention even in honorable mentions was México beating Czechoslovakia in 1962, a result that is severely underrated even in México itself. México had never won a single game at a World Cup previously, having at the time a record of 1 draw and 10 losses (getting battered in almost all of those). Further more, Czechoslovakia reached the final of that World Cup so they were a good team in that very same tournament, unlike some of the cases you mentioned in which the superior team had an overall bad tournament (England in 1950, Italy in 1966, France in 2002).
Lastly, the way the game transpired also makes it even more astonishing since Czech player Václav Mašek scored the fastest World Cup goal (a record it mantained for 40 years) just 15 seconds into the match. Yet México still beat them solidly 3-1, despite having to climb a mountain of bad history and being down basically since the clock started ticking.
Btw one small correction, Argentina didn't have the record for most unbeaten games in international football, Italy was slightly better as they went 37 games unbeaten from 2018 to 2021.
Might need to add the Japan vs Germany and Japan vs Spain games now
Yep
morocco hold my beer
This video proves that losing your first game could lead to capitulation or recovery
Yes
This time, we can safely say Argentina recovered. Whatever happens next, a semifinal appearence is a big W.
Hi Alfie, a video about players who save their best football for world cups would be a great video. Players like Ochoa, Enner Valencia, even Shaqiri depending on how much the discrepancy between their club football level and international football level intrigues you. Thanks for your great videos always!
Debutants Ghana beat 2nd ranked Czech Republic 2 - 0 in the 2006 World Cup
What about South Korea 2-0 Germany in 2018 🤔
I believe it also was a shocking one. Germany being World Cup holders and winning Confederations Cup a year before were definitely expected to qualify, but this game changed everything
That one wasn't too shocking compared to the ones in the video as South Korea were already known to be decent and Mexico had already beaten Germany earlier.
@@TequilaToothpick Yep
This 2018 humiliating defeat made their 2022 exit not quite a big upset.
@@TequilaToothpick South Korea were not decent. 2018 World Cup was a terrible one, performance wise from Korea. They offered nothing against Sweden, got one goal out of nothing against Mexico, and were, I believe, the third worst team in regards to fair play.
Germany, while wounded, still should have 100% beaten South Korea on that day, and yet they did not
@@OzKo South Korea were decent, they beat the world champions lol
A lot of people don't know this but in the world cup 1950, USA almost got another upset against Spain. USA were winning 1-0 till the 81st minute until finally Spain scored. USA beating Colombia 2-1 in 1994 is another upset. That colombian squad were one of the favorites to win the world cup. Cameroon 1-0 win over defending world champions Argentina in 1990 with only 9 men on Cameroons side is a big shocker!
For the DPRK win against Italy, you could've mentioned just how impressive it was that the Korean team managed to beat the Italians only a decade after losing an entire 20% of their population, much of that civilian, to South Korean and American warfare. That extra detail really adds layers to what the North Korean team pulled off in 1966, it's like if a Syrian team was to upset Argentina or somebody in 2030.
@philipmichalke9577 Yeah ig so, they did have aid from like all the west in rebuilding though while the DPRK had some aid from the Soviet Union and a bunch of heavy sanctions from the west
Yeah nah
world cup 2022 had so many upsets
Norway beating Brazil 2-1 in the 1998 world cup. "The miracle in Marseille"
Not really that Norway team was one of the best since the 50/60s
Norway draw 2-2 to Marocco and 1-1 to Scotland in the 2 first games in there group. So they had to beat 94 WC winners Brazil at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille to stay in the WC. Brazil was 1-0 up with 10 min left in the game when Tore André Flo and Kjetil Rekdal score to win Norway the game. It's the biggest win in norwegian football history. In Norway it's call "the miracle in Marseille"
Uruguay over Brazil 1950, West Germany over Hungary 1954, North Korea over Italy 1966, Algeria over West Germany 1982, Cameroon over Argentina 1990, Bulgaria over Germany 1994, Senegal over France 2002, South Korea over Italy and Spain in 2002, South Korea over Germany 2018, Saudi Arabia over Argentina 2022, Japan over Germany and Spain 2022, South Korea over Portugal 2022, Morocco over Belgium, Spain and Portugal 2022.
South Korea - Italy in 2002 deserves to be on the list imo or South Korea - Germany 2018
Finally someone mentioned the West Germany-Algeria 1-2 in '82. Nobody else has when compiling their greatest upsets ranking.
A great shame Algeria were cheated out of progressing.
Cameroon in Italy 90 was legendary hopefully they win Africa’s first ever World Cup whenever that is
East Germany beating West Germany in West Germany deserved a spot
Surprised that USA's 3-2 win over Portugal in 2002 didnt make the honorable mention list.
The Irish guy was right! (He correctly predicted Japan beating Germany 2-1)
Another curious data, is that Costa Rica´s players worth was the smallest of the whole tournament. At least 1000x less than all of its rivals. Nowadays it remains similar, but still giving good performance.
I personally think Spain beating Costa Rica yesterday should be on this list 😱huge upset and very close game
How to count to 7 in different languages:
🏴/🇺🇸 : one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
🇵🇹: um, dois, tres, quatro, cinco, seis, sete
🇮🇹: uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette
🇩🇪: eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben
🇨🇷: Olmo, Asensio, Torres, Torres, Gavi, Soler, Morata
Hungary 9-0 South Korea clear only real ones know how much back-and-forth that was
@@tombo416 😂😂
@@tombo416 One of the best comments I've seen.
@@tombo416 ☠️☠️
Honorable Mentions:
Turkey 2002: After a slow start, they finished third by defeating the host (Japan in R16 and South Korea in 3rd place match). They also had easy, but grueling encounter, after France and Argentina got grouped (which was eventually replaced by Sweden and Senegal, with the latter won that game).
Ukraine in 2006: Making the debut as independent country, they reached the quarterfinal after had an easy encounter with Switzerland and the opponent missed all penalty shootout kicks.
Paraguay in 2010: Having topped the group that contained Italy, Paraguay defeated Japan on penalties and had narrowly eliminated by Spain through controversial fashion in quarters.
21 of Senegal's 23 played their club football in France
The other two played in Africa😃
Hello again, followed your channel a lot through the Euros, sorry love football, but only follow the big competitions. Back again for the World Cup, thank you for all the great videoes
The overall biggest shock of international football has to be Greece winning the Euro tournament in 2004.
Wow
Yesterday I saw a tweet which asked whether Olivier Giroud was in the top 50, or even in the top 20 strikers of all time, which i found absolutely ridicilous. Could you do a video about how recency bias has absolutely melted some peoples brains?
Honourable mention to Uruguay 2-1 Brazil in 1950
yeah definitely. That match upset the whole Brazilian stadium.
Whatever about WC upsets in terms of isolated results the WC is the one tournament where no genuine outsider has ever won the tournament unlike Greece winning the 2004 Euros for example
Try watching Afcon. Zambia winning it in 2013 total upset
I was just thinking about this... I was thinking " Hey... There should be a video indicating some of the greatest upsets in world cup"... And here we are...
Was hoping someone would do this topic exactly. Thank you!
Nicely done...
In club football, Norwich beating Bayern Munich in Munich in the 90s must be up there...they rarely lost at home in European competitions...
I think Brazil being eliminated in the group stage in 1966 after winning the World Cups in 1958 and 1962 deserved an honourable mention.
And they bounced back in 1970.
South Korea 2-1 Italy should definitely be on the list in my opinion....
Few moments felt more patriotic than the day I learned that the USMNT had actually beaten England in a World Cup once. You can also then add the number of British-won Super Bowls (which remains nil) and that quickly becomes a 3-1-0 head-to-head record in our favor (if you include armed conflicts). Who really needs a proper soccer pyramid when you're always on top?
Made the video a bit early now that more results has come. Japan winning against Spain and knocking Germany out of the world cup.
Yep.
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now.
The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore.
How they were very close to moving to ireland
How they went up the English football leagues.
It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
I am from the future. Sadi Arabia are out and Argentina still in.
DAY 33: Hey Alfie, could you do a video on the life, career, controversies and tragedy of Justin Fashanu. It'd be your best video yet and it's a criminally underheard story. ❤️
Guess time to do a part two
Gotta be USA over England in 1950. USA was a team all amatuer part timers like gravediggers ,postman and couple of college kids with no league to play in. Why England were one of the best teams with some English legends in it.
Would love to see a video of the most surprising nation that failed to qualify from each confederation for as many World Cups back that you’re willing to research
I think everyone overlooks South Korea's victory over Germany in the previous world cup. In terms of ELO its one of the biggest upsets of all time in World Cup history, but it never gets mentioned in these conversations.
I think because it wasn't really all that surprising. Germany like looked shambolic and lost to Mexico already and we knew South Korea were good.
@@TequilaToothpick Yep.
This video may require quite a few...
...updates
South Africa beating France 2-1 in 2010??
Against the worst French team since the early 90s, that had already imploded?
I think that Slovakia knocking out Italy in South Africa 2010 could have at least gotten an honourable mention. Italy were the reigning World Champions at the time and only needed a draw to progress to the round of 16. Although, surprisingly they started off their World Cup defense with two 1-1 draws with Paraguay and New Zealand respectively. Buffon, who was the regular starting goalie only played in the first game with Paraguay and was replaced by Marchetti for the other two games. Slovakia were playing in their first World Cup since Czechoslovakia split and needed to win after drawing with New Zealand and losing to Paraguay. Italy fell behind 2-0 before pulling one back. Then late in the game Vitteck would put Slovakia 3-1 up. Quagliarella would make it 3-2 and Italy would come agonisingly close to tying it up in injury time. But it was not to be. Slovakia would finish second in the group with 4 points behind Paraguay with 5. New Zealand would finish third with 3 from three draws and Italy would finish bottom-last with only 2 points.
As I recall: New Zealand managing not to lose to Italy was especially seen as a big upset at the time. Italy were world champions and had a very strong squad with Buffon, Cannavaro, Chiellini, de Rossi, Zambrotta, Pepe, etc. But they went home without a win.
@@danieleyre8913 I don't think Buffon played after the first game with Paraguay. I think he got injured and was replaced by Federico Marchetti. Still, Italy was fancied to progress from that group which didn't materialize.
@@johnsalazar2581 Yeah but he was still in the squad pre tournament.
@@danieleyre8913 I think had he been fit, Italy may have just have managed to make it out of the group. Although, frankly speaking, their pre-World Cup form had not been impressive.They didn't win a single game until after the World Cup.
A contender would be Denmark beating Uruguay 6-1 in 1986. Uruguay was a powerhouse of World Cup in those days and Denmark was participating in their first World Cup ever....
France doing so poor in the 2002 World Cup was the reason i believe that the champions getting an automatic berth in the following WC was scraped and everyone other than the hosts since that WC has had to go through a qualifying campaign.
To be honest even the hosts won't be assured an automatic berth(s) - it had to be confirmed that the US, Canada and Mexico would qualify automatically long after they were awarded hosting rights. Moreover the host berths will be directly taken from the confederation (or confederations if the bid is inter-confederation) of the host nation or nations, meaning that for CONCACAF in 2026 there will be only 3 guaranteed berths left and they will have the chance to have 2 more teams subject of an inter-confederation playoff (which includes every confederation, sans UEFA, plus one more team from the host confederation)
@@ivaneurope how many spots are they getting from the world cup expansion
@@ishaandw CONCACAF will get 6 guaranteed berths, which also includes the 3 berths reserved for the hosts. AFC will get 8, CAF - 9, COMNEBOL - 6, OFC - 1 (the first time Oceania has guaranteed berth) and UEFA - 15; the remaining 2 quotas will be determined via inter-confederation play-off comprising of 1 team from each confederation except for UEFA + an additional team from the host confederation.
@@ivaneurope nice! Thanks
I think the 1966 tournament had only 16 teams rather than 32 (so the first knock out round was the quarter finals)
The Saudis carved up that Argentine defense like it was a journalist from the Washington Post!
Wow you got this video put out quick didn't ya lol
In the inaugural 1930 tournament Brazil were expected to progress from their group with Yugoslavia and Bolivia, however lost to Yugoslavia meaning they didn’t get out their group.
In 1938 Cuba drew 3-3 with Romania meaning the tie went to a replay, with Cuba progressing to the quarter-finals where they lost 8-0 to Sweden. Not sure if Cuba beating Romania was considered an upset back then but I’m guessing it was
Also in the 1950 final (well the last round was a group, but this final group game was to decide who won the title) there was big expectation that Brazil would beat Uruguay, but Uruguay ended up as champions.
1998: Brazil had a big expectation to defend the World Cup, but after Ronaldo's controversy, France smacked them 3-0 and lift the World Cup at home soil. France had beaten the previous finalist Italy on penalties.
South Africa beating France in 2010
The France team in 2010 was the worst one that I've ever seen because:
1.Thierry Henry's Hand of God (France should not qualify to the World Cup).
2.Patrice Evra and Nicolas Anelka is a poor guy.
Italy with 37 matches unbeaten from 2018 to 2021 hold this record.
The Euro 2020 title was included in that - yet they missed both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Not calling this video "Great World Cupsets" was a slight missed opportunity.
Thank you, Alfie. This made my Thanksgiving.
What about the 7-1 in the 2014 Semi Finals, where Germany obliterated Brasil?
It depends on what happens onwards. If Argentina still makes it to the quarters , and Saudi loses last 2 game, the impact of the Saudi upset is minimized
It is already Argentina win Group Stage and Saudi last place.
Before your video I had all those matches in mind in my list of greatest upsets. Great minds think alike?
US also beat England in 2022
Saudi arabia lost 5-0 to Russia, Saudi Arabia won 2-1 over Egypt and lost 1-0 to Uruguay in the 2018 world cup.
My favourite upset is south Korea beating Germany which resulted in both getting knocked out
I love how everyone loves the Saudis now
Ireland's win over Italy in USA 94 wasnt as big a shock as you make it out to be as of April 94's FIFA World Rankings had Italy in 13th and the Republic in 17th place one place below England
Unfortunately, Costa Rica fielded the same team that upset Uruguay yesterday, in hopes of upsetting Spain.
Yes, the problem is it was 8 years ago. So much in football has changed during that time period.
Brazil 1 Uruguay 2 in the 1950 unofficial final, and Saudi Arabia 1 Belgium 0 1994.
I'm surprised that you would rank Saudi Arabia beating Argentina that low, given the Saudis record at World Cups, having only won 2 World Cup matches since they first qualified in 1994, both of those at that tournament.
North African countries have looked pretty good this tournament, a North African XI would be nice for a big demographic
How on earth could you leave out Romania beating both Colombia AND Argentina at World Cup '94? Prejudiced much, Alfie?!
That's because they were actually pretty good
Surprised Uruguay 2-1 Brazil didn't get a mention
How is that an upset, it is known that Uruguay has always been a decent team
@@bababababababa6124 It was in Brazil and Brazil only needed a draw to win the trophy as it was a final round group rather than a knockout tournament.
@@WilliamRobinson-bb6mr Still not an upset if mexico beat germany.
On saturday we are going to hit the last punch for, at last, beating Argentina.
It may have been a draw but Italy 1 - New Zealand 1 in the 2010 world cup deserves a mention
5:43 was he hiding a jetpack somewhere?; his feet are level with the defender's chest! 👀
That's not why German annexed Austria, there were definitely factors outside of football
In 1966 North Korea was aligned with China, not the USSR.
Another big upset happened at Russia... When Germany was prematurely eliminated at the group stages