History of World Cup 1958

Winners: Brazil

Teams: 16

Teams in qualifiers: 45
Notable absentees Italy, Uruguay
Surprises Wales, Northern Ireland
Golden Boot Just Fontaine (France) - 13
Stats A total of 126 goals were scored (3.60 per match); France (23) scored the most
Format Four groups of four, with the top two progressing to the quarter-finals

Number of matches 35

Innovations
• If teams tied for second and third in the group stages, there would be a replay
• A record of 12 cities hosted matches

Controversies
• Israel qualified because teams refused to play them, but FIFA intervened and insisted they play at least once in order to progress to the finals. Wales, non-qualified runners-up in their UEFA group, were chosen and won 2-0 home and away to qualify instead
• Turkey withdrew from qualifying after refusing to be included in the Asian group
• Only 2,823 spectators watched the play-off game between Hungary and Wales. People boycotted the match to show sympathy with Imre Nagy, the Prime Minister of Hungary at the time of the Russian invasion in 1956, who had been executed the previous day. The official attendance, which FIFA still endorses, was 20,000
• The semi-final between Sweden and West Germany was almost abandoned because the president of the German football association threatened to withdraw his team unless the Swedes stopped refusing to seat some of the German fans. The organisers relented

Trivia
• Brazil's Pelé was 17 when he played in the final, the youngest person to do so
• Just Fontaine, who scored 13 goals for France, remains the record holder for one tournament
• The Northern Irish FA told their squad that it was against Irish law to play two of their first-round matches on a Sunday. After player protests, the FA relented
• Hungary only retained three players from their 1954 final squad, many of the others choosing to flee the country after the Russian invasion of 1956
• This was the only occasion all four UK 'home nations' qualified together
• Argentina, who finished bottom of their group, were pelted with rubbish on their return home to Buenos Aires

If 1954 saw the final hurrah of Hungary, one of football's greatest ever teams, 1958 was the beginning of another team's dominance of the World Cup. Brazil and the World Cup are inextricably linked and it was in Sweden that the bond was formed.

The presence of international television cameras for the first time made this tournament a watershed and, in a 17-year-old Brazilian, the game had its first and probably greatest star. Pelé was not in the Brazilian side at the beginning of the tournament but, by its conclusion, football had its first international pin-up.

Another facet of this tournament was the appearance of all four home nations as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all qualified and, of the four, it was the two smaller nations who most impressed. The Irish were managed by Peter Doherty, who had a superb lieutenant on the field in Danny Blanchflower. Together, Doherty and Blanchflower gave the world the free-kick wall as their team reached the quarter-final stage before falling to the French. The Welsh, led by the amazing talents of John Charles, reached the same stage only to lose out to Brazil and, more pertinently, Pelé.

Scotland's campaign was as disastrous as that four years previously while England, considerably weakened by the loss of Tommy Taylor and Roger Byrne in the Munich air disaster and with the still traumatised Bobby Charlton a non-playing member of the squad, lost out in a play-off to the Soviet Union.

An English presence in the tournament was retained by George Raynor, the Yorkshire-born coach of Sweden. He led a team featuring Nils Liedholm and Gunnar Gren, both veterans of their country's victory in the 1948 Olympics but now stars of the lucrative Italian league.

Brazil, playing a revolutionary 4-2-4 system, already had a mercurial midfield talent in Didi, a line-leading, goalscoring centre-forward in Vavá and two legendary half-backs in Djalma and Nilton Santos. But with the addition in later games of Pelé and Garrincha, an amazing winger with dribbling skills comparable to Stanley Matthews, they were undoubtedly the team to beat.

In the group stage, they were prolific in front of goal and, although England held them to a goalless draw, they were heavily fancied to thrash Wales in the last eight. But the Welsh, sadly lacking the injured John Charles, made them fight all the way. Pelé, starting only his second game, and, at 17 years old, the youngest player to grace the finals tournament, scored a deflected goal past superb keeper Jack Kelsey. Pelé himself would describe it as the most important goal he would ever score.

The semi-finals saw them face France, who for once had put up a performance befitting their status as tournament founders. Just Fontaine was their record-breaking striker, scoring 13 goals in the tournament, even if four of the goals came in the third-place game.

His bullets were supplied by Raymond Kopa, an inside-forward who plied his trade for Real Madrid and who, until Michel Platini, was regarded as France's greatest-ever player. But with Pelé now into his stride, the French had no answer as the young star scored a hat-trick in an easy 5-2 win.

So the final would be a battle of South American style and the best that the far more athletic European game had to offer. Before the game, George Raynor predicted that if the Brazilians were to go a goal behind then they would "panic all over the show".

His prediction was to be tested, and it failed. Liedholm put the Swedes a goal up after four minutes but, five minutes later, Vavá headed in a Garrincha cross. The trick was repeated on the half-hour. And, after half-time, Pelé grabbed the match by the scruff of the neck. The goal that truly created the Pelé legend came on 55 minutes. A lofted ball was chested down, hooked over a defender and projected into the bottom left corner by an unerring volley. The trophy's destination was confirmed after right-winger Zagallo followed up his own corner to make it four after 68 minutes. Simonsson grabbed a consolation before Pelé headed in a Zagallo cross.

The Jules Rimet Trophy was Brazil's. Records had been smashed in the tournament - Fontaine's goal haul, Pelé's youth and a team from the Americas winning on foreign soil. And in Pelé, who shed tears of joy as the Brazilians carried the trophy and national flag around the pitch, world football had found its biggest star.

History of World Cup 1954

Winners: West Germany

Teams: 16

Teams in qualifiers: 45
Notable absentees Spain
Surprises Korean Republic
Golden Boot Sándor Kocsis (Hungary) - 11
Stats A total of 140 goals were scored (5.38 per match); Hungary (27) scored the most
Format Four groups of four with two seeded and two unseeded teams in each group. However, the teams played just two matches per group rather than the usual three, with the seeded sides facing unseeded sides. Where teams ended up tied for the second qualifying position by points, they required a play-off. The two teams finishing at the top of their group went through to the quarter-finals

Number of matches 26

Innovations
• For the first time, the tournament was televised
• All matches level after 90 minutes went to extra time. Only if the scores were still tied after 120 minutes were they deemed drawn

Controversies
• The draw for the finals took place before the end of the qualifying. Spain were seeded but had to be replaced after they were knocked out by Turkey following a replayed match that had eventually been settled by the captains drawing lots
• Three players were sent off in the match between Hungary and Brazil, which went down in history as the Battle of Berne. Even after the game, the fighting continued as the Brazilians burst into the Hungarian dressing room and a pitched battle ensued
• It has been claimed the German team were doped for the second half of the final, accounting for their much stronger showing

Trivia
• Korean goalkeeper Hong Duk-Yung conceded 16 goals in two matches
• Fritz and Ottmar Walter of West Germany became the first brothers in a winning World Cup side. In the semi-finals, they had become the first brothers to score in the same World Cup game
• The Hungarians went into the final unbeaten in 29 matches over a four-year spell
• The German team were amateurs as there was no professional league there at the time
• Arthur Ellis, the English referee who officiated in the Battle of Berne, went on to become the referee on BBC TV's It's a Knockout

With the championship returning to Europe and World War II still at the forefront of memories, FIFA chose to base the World Cup in that most neutral of countries - Switzerland. The Swiss had promised to build several purpose-built stadia and, though they did not quite come through with their promises, it was to be a profitable time for FIFA and the host nation.

Top box-office draw was undoubtedly a Hungarian team that had swept all before them at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Playing a flowing attacking game that centred around a deep-lying centre-forward in Nandor Hidegutki and the explosive talents of inside-left and captain Ferenc Puskas, they had been unbeaten in four years.

Holders Uruguay, travelling to play in a World Cup in Europe for the first time, retained many of their stars from 1950. West Germany, led by the mercurial talents of veteran striker Fritz Walter, also had some backers but many of these had fallen by the wayside after the result of their second match. After beating Turkey 4-1, they came up against the Mighty Magyars, themselves fresh from a record 9-0 thumping of South Korea, and collapsed 8-3 to a team playing what many regarded as the best football yet seen on the world stage.

But while the Germans were thoroughly humbled, centre-half Werner Liebrich made probably the most important kick of the tournament - a savage assault on Puskas, which led to the Hungarian lynchpin limping off the field with an ankle injury. But even without their 'Galloping Major', few now saw the winners of the tournament being anyone but the Hungarians.

Uruguay, though, were enjoying life across the Atlantic. They cruised through their group stage, beating the Czechs 2-0 and thrashing Scotland, making their first appearance in the finals, 7-0. Future Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty was one of the terrorised Tartans. His excuse for the loss? That the Uruguayan national anthem was too long and had exhausted the Scots before the game had even started. England were next for the champions and they were no match as Schiaffino and Varela repeated their form of 1950 and won the match 4-2.

Brazil were a team going through a rebuilding process after the horror of 1950. Nevertheless, their quarter-final with Hungary looked an enticing prospect. But a match that for evermore will be known as the 'Battle of Berne' did not show off the finer aspects of the 'Beautiful Game'. With two Brazilians and one Hungarian sent off and Puskas, still out injured, implicated in a post-match bottling incident on Brazilian centre-half Pinheiro, football was definitely not the winner. That accolade went to the Magyars, with inside-forward Kocsis - 'The Golden Head' - grabbing two goals.

The holders awaited them in the semis and the match lived up to all expectations as a late Uruguayan equaliser from Hohberg took the game to extra-time. But Hungary's added class showed in the extra period and it was again Kocsis who won it for them, another brace making his team 4-2 winners.

Their final opponents would be the Germans, who after being forced to play a play-off with the Turks had made easy progress, beating Yugoslavia 2-0 and then thumping Austria 6-1 in the semis. With Walter outstanding, they were a different proposition to the team that had lost so heavily in their first-round encounter.

And Puskas remained a doubt for the final with his ankle injury rendering him even more immobile than ever. But tantrum after tantrum saw him restored to the captaincy and the inside-left position. Many also said that his presence would unbalance a team for whom Hidegutki, Kocsis, Budai and Czibor had worked so well together.

All that talk was seemingly wiped away after eight minutes. Puskas returned in style, smashing in a rebound from Kocsis' shot after six minutes. Two minutes later Czibor seized on a backpass to add to the lead. Surely now Hungary would be champions? Only two minutes later, the doubts set in. Max Morlock converted a Schafer cross and then a howler from keeper Grocsis let in Uwe Rahn to equalise on 18 minutes.

The momentum was now with the Germans. For all the Hungarians' pressure and near-misses, desperation was their over-riding emotion. And with six minutes to go, Rahn came away with the ball after another defensive mix-up and scored from the edge of the penalty area.

Hungary came back even stronger and when Puskas, who for the most part had been a badly-limping passenger, fired in a characteristic shot, it seemed they had saved what had seemed to have been their God-given right. A waving and quite possibly errant offside flag dashed their hopes and they complained right up to, and after, the final whistle.

The result would stand. The West Germans were champions and Hungary had blown their best-ever chance to win the title. Two years later, their country collapsed into revolution and many of the stars of 1954 defected from the Communist bloc. Hungarian football has never been the same since.