WORLD CUP 1954

Forty-five teams entered the fifth World Cup, to be held in Switzerland in 1954, including champions Uruguay who would play in the tournament in Europe for the first time. Again sixteen teams qualified, but FIFA could not resist altering the format again. Knockout matches returned after the group stage, but in each group teams would play just two matches, two seeded teams facing two unseeded teams with the seeds not having to play each other. Any drawn match could go to extra-time, even in the group stage, and teams level on points for second place would have to play off to decide who went through.

In Group A, Brazil and France were to two seeds, but France fell to defeat against Yugoslavia in their first match, and with Brazil thrashing Mexico 5-0 a draw would see both Brazil and Yugoslavia through. After extra-time they did indeed finish level at 1-1 and both advanced to the last eight. Turkey were surprisingly seeded ahead of West Germany in Group B, and with tournament favourites Hungary cruising through the West German coach Sepp Herberger decided to field a weakened team against Hungary and take his chances in a play-off with Turkey. Crushed 8-3 by Hungary, the Germans were confident against a team they had already beaten 4-1 and with a 7-2 win in the play-off they joined Hungary in the quarter-finals.

There was absolutely no contest in Group C, with the seeds Uruguay and Austria seeing off Czechoslovakia and Scotland easily, neither seed conceding a goal. England and Italy were seeded in Group D, but in the opening matches England were held to a 4-4 draw by Belgium and Italy were beaten by hosts Switzerland. The two seeds both won their second matches to take England through, and Italy faced a rematch with the Swiss in a play-off. This time the host nation won even more easily, by four goals to one, to reach the last eight.

The first quarter-final between Austria and Switzerland was an astonishing match. The hosts raced into a 3-0 lead, but Austria responded with five goals in a nine minute spell to take charge before Switzerland got a goal back to trail just 5-4 at half-time. With Austria leading 6-5 late in the second half, Austria's seventh goal finally put the game beyond the Swiss, and the twelve total goals are still a World Cup finals record. Reigning champions Uruguay ended England's hopes with a 4-2 win before Hungary saw off Brazil by the same score in a very bad tempered match that swe three players sent off. In the last quarter-final, an early own goal helped West Germany past Yugoslavia 2-0.

In the semi-finals, West Germany cruised into their first final after outclassing Austria 6-1, but it was the other match between Hungary and Uruguay that became one of football's classic matches. Hungary took a 2-0 lead, but with Uruguay defending an unbeaten World Cup record stretching right back to the first tournament they hit back with two late goals to force extra-time. Two extra-time headers by the tournament's top scorer Sandor Kocsis saw Hungary through and inflicted Uruguay's first ever World Cup defeat, followed three days later by another as Austria won the third place match.

Following their 8-3 win in the group stages, Hungary were overwhelming favourites to take the title but West Germany had a stronger team out for the final. Hungary started strongest, with Ferenc Puskás and Zoltan Czibor giving them a 2-0 lead inside nine minutes, but West Germany were level nine minutes later through goals from Max Morlock and Helmut Rahn. There was no more scoring until six minutes from time, when Rahn gave the Germans a shock lead, and Hungary had little time to respond. Right at the end Puskás scored again, but the goal was controversially ruled out for offside, and West Germany were the surprise champions. Hungary had possibly been over-confident after their group stage win, and their best chance to win the World Cup had gone.