“Germany beat Morocco 6-0 at the Women’s World Cup, but it was Morocco who went through to the last 16. What’s the biggest score a team has won/lost by and then not qualified/qualified from their group?” asks Chris Butterworth.
Germany’s ultimately futile trouncing of Morocco meant they went out with a goal difference of +5, while Morocco qualified for the last 16 with a goal difference of -4. It’s by far the biggest such victory at a Women’s World Cup. In fact, in eight previous tournaments, we can find only two cases of Team A beating Team B, only for Team B to qualify at the expense of Team A.
Both were single-goal victories. In 1995, Brazil beat the hosts Sweden 1-0 in their opening group match, but then lost 2-1 to Japan and 6-1 to Germany. With Sweden winning their remaining games, Brazil finished bottom of the group. Sweden lost on penalties to China in the quarter-final.
The boot was on the other foot for Sweden in 2007. After taking only one point from their first two group games, they faced North Korea (who had four points) in their last match. Teams were separated by goal difference, not head-to-head record, which meant Sweden had to win by three goals rather than just one. They beat North Korea 2-1 and went home. North Korea then lose 3-0 to Germany in the last eight.
There are a couple of similar examples from the women’s Euros. In 2005, the hosts England beat Finland 3-2 in their first game, with Karen Carney scoring an injury-time winner. But they lost the next two games and finished bottom of the group, with Sweden and Finland (who recovered to draw with Sweden and beat Denmark) going through to the semi-finals.
Sweden were again involved at Euro 2017. They lost their final game 3-2 to Italy, who had already been eliminated. With Germany beating Russia at the same time, Sweden went through to the last eight, where they lost 2-0 to the Netherlands.
In qualification for the 2011 World Cup, Ukraine lost their opening game 4-1 away to Poland, but went on to top the group, a point above Poland, and qualify for the tournament in Germany.
And so to men’s football, where there are a few more extreme examples of this. First, these are all the cases that we could find in the World Cup, including famous but ultimately futile wins for Scotland in 1978, Algeria in 1982 and Saudi Arabia last year:
Mexico 3-1 Czechoslovakia 1962
Sweden 1-0 Uruguay 1970
Scotland 3-2 Netherlands 1978
Algeria 2-1 West Germany 1982
Portugal 1-0 England 1986
Cameroon 0-4 USSR 1990
Switzerland 0-2 Colombia 1994
Norway 1-0 Mexico 1994
Poland 3-1 USA 2002
Italy 1-2 Croatia 2002
Germany 0-1 Serbia 2010
Spain 0-1 Switzerland 2010
Germany 2-1 Sweden 2018
Japan 0-1 Poland 2018
Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia 2022
Tunisia 1-0 France 2022
Cameroon 1-0 Brazil 2022
South Korea 2-3 Ghana 2022
Only one of those wins was by three goals or more, but there are plenty of examples elsewhere. In the Champions League in 1994-95, Steaua Bucharest won 4-1 away to Hajduk Split in their final group game, but by then they had already been eliminated. Hajduk lost to the eventual winners Ajax in the quarter-finals.
Arsenal’s Invincibles lost 3-0 to Inter at Highbury at the start of their 2003-04 campaign. They took only one point from their first three group games, but won the last three – including a spectacular 5-1 win against Inter at San Siro – to win the group. Lokomotiv Moscow pipped Inter to second place.
In 1995-96, Rosenborg hammered Legia Warsaw 4-0 in their penultimate game. But their 4-1 defeat in the final match at Ewood Park, to an already eliminated Blackburn, allowed Legia to go through. They lost in the next round, 3-0 on aggregate to Panathinaikos.
Cameroon had already qualified for the last 16 when they played their final group game of Italia 90 against the USSR, who needed a big victory to stand any chance of going through. They got it, winning 4-0, but went out because of a draw in the other game between Romania and Argentina. Cameroon went on to lose gloriously to England in the last eight.
See also: Barcelona 4-0 Leeds in the Champions League group stage of 2000-01 (Leeds went through at Barcelona’s expense, all the way to the semi-finals).
A year later, Juventus beat eventual finalists Leverkusen 4-0 in the second group stage. Arsenal also beat Leverkusen 4-1, but neither they nor Juventus went through the knockout rounds. And the season after that, 2002-03, Olympiacos started their campaign with a 6-2 win over Leverkusen. But Leverkusen recovered to win three of their last four games, including a vital 2-0 victory over Olympiacos, and sneaked into the second group stage.
We haven’t been able to find a result to match Germany 6-0 Morocco (if you can, get in touch), but there is a pretty good tale from the Champions League in 2000-01. In the first group stage, Sturm Graz lost 5-0 to Rangers and Monaco in their first two away games – but they still won the group, and went through along with Galatasaray. They tried it again in the second group stage, losing 5-0 at home to Valencia. This time it didn’t work.
And finally, one that didn’t happen. During last year’s men’s World Cup, for three delirious second-half minutes, Costa Rica were on course to qualify ahead of Spain – the same Spain that beat them 7-0 in the opening game. Eventually Costa Rica lost 4-2 to Germany, who were also eliminated.
Managing a former teammate
“Ashley Young has signed a one-year deal to play for Sean Dyche’s Everton; the two of them were teammates at Watford almost 20 years ago,” notes Jonny Sharples. “What is the longest gap between two players being teammates and then one managing the other?”
This is a short and sweet answer from Tom Victor. “Olli Huttunen played with Jari Litmanen in 1989 and managed him in 2010,” writes Tom, “both for the Finnish national team.” Litmanen was 18 when he made his debut and 39 when he appeared for the 137th and final time against San Marino in November 2010. That game was also Huttunen’s first as manager, and Litmanen scored a penalty in an 8-0 win.
A load of Bull?
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at clubs who had signed the wrong player by mistake. We missed another (possible) example …
Wolves legend Steve Bull scored 50-plus goals in consecutive seasons in 1987-89, which may or may not have alerted some Dutch scouts. “A bit niche,” tweets Peter Dodd, “but I have always suspected that when Sparta Rotterdam tried to sign Cambridge striker Gary Bull in the late 1980s, they it was Steve Bull. Both teams played in shirts of a similar colour …”
And they were cousins. Sparta agreed a fee of £52,000, which, had they been getting Steve, would have been about a grand per goal in the previous season. In the end, they didn’t get anyone: Gary failed to agree personal terms and the move fell through.
Knowledge archive
“Which player has scored the most goals in games that were subsequently abandoned?” asked Roland Tye in 2009.
Many of you emailed in to point out that, in 1961, Denis Law scored six for Manchester City in an FA Cup tie against Luton, before the game was abandoned with City 6-0 up. In the rearranged fixture Law’s side lost 3-1.
Can you help?
“If she hadn’t had a goal chalked off, Lauren James would have had a hat-trick of goals and assists against China. Has this ever been done before?” asks George Ronczy.
“IK Junkeren, my local team in the Norwegian third tier, are unbeaten in their last 30 away games. Their last defeat was in September 2019. What is the longest such run?” wonders Kristoffer Madsen Andersen.
Are there any instances of a player getting a haircut at half-time or otherwise during a game?
— Sean MacDonald (@BrianPingu) August 8, 2023
“As a huge Arsenal fan I am used to Barcelona crushing us in the Champions League,” notes Noah Masters. “Which teams from different nations have played each other most often in European competition?”
@TheKnowledge_GU Longest Home Losing Streak, think it's Woodford United, beat Chertsey Town 2-1 on 7th April 2012, then lost 45 straight at home until beating St Neots Town Youth & Saints 3-2 on 16th August 2014, suffering 2 relegations in the streak.
— Andrew Dowland (@AndrewDowland) August 2, 2023
“Jonathan Rowe made his debut for Norwich in December 2021 when he came on as a substitute. He then made 17 more appearances as sub before finally getting his first start at the weekend. What’s the longest gap, in terms of appearances made or time passed, between a player making his debut and full debut?” muses Joey Millar.
@TheKnowledge_GU This weekend, Sutton beat Notts County 5-1, with a possession of only 30% - has any team ever recorded a lower possession-per-goal statistic in a professional match than 6% per goal (naturally excluding matches like the 149-0 protest) pic.twitter.com/7ewGd0SL00
— FishingForBoots 🫖 (@fishing4boots) August 7, 2023
“In 1967, 1968 and 1970, West Brom appeared in three domestic cup finals not wearing their home kit,” writes Dave Payn. “The teams they played on those days also wore a change strip (QPR 1967, Everton 1968, Manchester City 1970). Does anyone know why this was? Also, which was the last domestic cup final where both sides didn’t play in their home colours?”
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
