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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Colin Millar

World Cup finalists for Qatar accidentally 'announced' by Google before mistake rectified

The World Cup final will take place in the Lusail Stadium on 18 December and for a few hours on Tuesday, Google revealed which sides would be competing in the showpiece.

In a strange mistake, the search engine claimed that Brazil would be playing France in the decider of the 2022 World Cup, with the two nations down to face off against each other at the Lusail Stadium on that date.

The match was listed under 'Lusail Stadium events' on Google, alongside the six group stage ties that the stadium is due to host alongside one game at each stage of the knockout rounds.

It is unclear why Brazil and France were generated to appear in the final match.

It is normal that Google shows teams as 'TBC' (to be confirmed) for matches that are not yet definitive, such as in football knockout tournaments. The same is true if the date of a match or venue has yet to be decided.

Google corrected the error hours later with the search results for 'Lusail Stadium events' no longer showing Brazil and France as finalists.

Have Your Say! Which teams do you think will be in this year's World Cup final ? Tell us what you think here.

Google's verdict would obviously be bad news for England, who are aiming to advance deep into the tournament with an outside chance of participating in the final – which would be the first time they have reached that stage of this competition since 1966.

The Lusail Stadium, owned by the Qatar Football Association, is the biggest stadium in Qatar with an 80,000-capacity, having been opened in November last year.

It is due to host ten matches throughout the tournament, starting with the Group C clash between Argentina and Saudi Arabia on 22 November, followed by Brazil's match against Serbia in Group G two days later.

Gareth Southgate led England to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 (The FA via Getty Images)

The stadium will also be the venue for Argentina's group match-up against Mexico before staging Portugal’s clash vs Uruguay, Saudi Arabia taking on Mexico and Brazil facing Cameroon.

It will then be the stadium for the Round of 16 clash between the winners of Group H and runners-up of Group G and will host a quarter-final, semi-final and then the final, on 18 December.

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