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“The top four teams in the Fifa rankings are also the four semi-finalists at the World Cup,” writes Henry Conroy. “Has this happened before?”
The men’s rankings have updated after every match of the World Cup, and Fifa surely missed a trick by not asking the great Martin Tyler to shout “And they’re live!” It means the order has changed during the tournament but the makeup of the top four was the same going into the semi-finals as it was at the start of the competition.
The big four were aided by Fifa’s new seeding system, though they still had to take care of business: Spain beat the teams ranked fifth and ninth (Portugal and Belgium), while France saw off No 7 (Morocco). In rankings terms, England’s best knockout win was against Mexico (14th); Argentina’s toughest test was against Switzerland (19th).
The Fifa men’s rankings, which were introduced in 1993, only cover the last nine World Cups. In the previous eight, the semi-finals never included more than two teams who were ranked in the top four at the start of the competition.
Before we cover our hands in stats, we should point out that the early rankings were fairly primitive: how else to explain the fact that France were 18th in the world and the Netherlands 25th going into the 1998 semi-finals?
This year’s semi-finalists had a combined Fifa ranking of 10, which is the lowest possible unless you have, say, two teams in joint third. In the men’s game, the previous best was a combined ranking of 25, which came in 2014:
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Brazil (3) v Germany (2)
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Netherlands (15) v Argentina (5)
The highest combined ranking of 75 came in 2002, a tournament full of surprises. Only one of the top four got out of the group stage: France and Argentina were eliminated, and Colombia hadn’t qualified in the first place. (Their high ranking was largely a consequence of winning the 2001 Copa América.)
These were the semi-finalists in 2002:
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Germany (11) v South Korea (40)
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Brazil (2) v Turkey (22)
Brazil flew the flag for the Fifa rankings and went on to win the entire thing. Four years later, and for the only time so far, none of the top four made the semi-finals. If you can name that top four, you should seek urgent help for trivia addiction. They were, in descending order: Brazil, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Mexico. This was the semi-final lineup in 2006, including a true heavyweight clash between two teams outside the top 10.
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Germany (19) v Italy (13)
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Portugal (7) v France (8)
Fifa didn’t introduce rankings for the women’s game until after the 1999 World Cup, so they only cover the last five competitions. They have generally been contested by higher-ranked teams, with no semi-finalists from outside the top 10. The weakest semi-final lineup (in rankings terms) produced a combined ranking of 23. That was in 2023:
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Spain (6) v Sweden (3)
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Australia (10) v England (4)
On two occasions, in 2007 and 2015, the semi-finals included three of the top four. The 2015 Women’s World Cup produced a combined ranking of only 13, with France (No 3) and Sweden (No 5) the two teams missing from the world’s top six.
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United States (2) v Germany (1)
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Japan (4) v England (6)
You win some, you lose some
“Sweden’s 5-1 victory against Tunisia was followed by a 5-1 defeat against Netherlands,” writes Dirk Maas. “Are there more examples of stunning World Cup wins followed by heavy defeats with the similar scoreline, or vice versa?”
Chris Roe was first to our inbox to point out a more positive turnaround at the 2006 World Cup. “Ukraine lost 4-0 to Spain, and then beat Saudi Arabia by the same score in their next group game.” After their heavy opening defeat in Leipzig, Ukraine completed their Group H escape by edging past Tunisia – and ended up going further in the tournament than Spain, reaching the quarter-finals before losing to Italy.
Jeremy Simmonds points us towards Group 2 at the 1954 finals – which we mentioned recently in a question on debut wins. While Turkey were beating South Korea 7-0 in Geneva, West Germany were being humbled by Hungary, losing 8-3 in Basel. A playoff was then required to see who would join the Magical Magyars in the quarter-finals.
“West Germany rebounded from a five-goal defeat, beating Turkey by a five-goal margin (7-2),” notes Jeremy. “They went all the way to the final, where they exacted revenge on Hungary, winning 3-2 in Berne.”
Ageless record-breakers
“Lionel Messi is Argentina’s youngest and oldest goalscorer – has any other footballer achieved this accolade or is likely to in the future?” asks Paul Gage.
Dean Whearty has a suggestion, and the name may not surprise you. “This summer, Cristiano Ronaldo became Portugal’s oldest World Cup scorer at the age of 41. He also netted against Iran back in 2006 to become his country’s youngest World Cup scorer – a record which amazingly still stands to this day.”
Knowledge archive
“Has any team been knocked out of the World Cup by the eventual winners more times than England?” asked Will Sturgeon back in 2002. “I can think of four times this has happened: Brazil in 2002, West Germany in 1990, Argentina in 1986 and Brazil again in 1962. Is anybody else as unlucky as us?”
The long and short answer at the time was: yes. France and the Netherlands had been eliminated from World Cups by the eventual winners on four occasions, while it had happened to Brazil five times. Germany were also on four – all of them finals – if results recorded as West Germany are included.
Brazil (5): Italy (1938, semi-final), Uruguay (1950, final game); Argentina (1978, second group stage); Italy (1982, second group stage); France (1998, final).
France (4): Italy (1938, second round); Brazil (1958, semi-finals); England (1966, group stage); Argentina (1978, group stage).
Netherlands (4): West Germany (1974, final); Argentina (1978, final); West Germany (1990, last 16); Brazil (1994, quarter-final).
Germany (4): England (1966, final); Italy (1982, final); Argentina (1986, final); Brazil (2002, final).
2026 update: Back in 2006, Italy beat Germany in the semi-finals and France in the final, adding one to each of their tallies. Four years later, Spain overcame the Netherlands in the 2010 final and Germany in the semis, while in 2014, Germany beat France in the quarter-finals before a forgettable semi-final romp past Brazil.
In 2018, France did not eliminate any of the teams mentioned above, but they lost the 2022 final to Argentina, who also took out the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. So by our maths, France have now been knocked out by the eventual champions seven times, leading Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands on six.
But wait! Another contender has emerged: Argentina. The Albiceleste have lost in three finals – 1930, 1990 and 2014 – and were knocked out of the group stage in 1958 by West Germany. Defeat to England followed in the 1966 quarter-finals, and they joined Brazil in the three-team group topped by Italy in 1982.
Finally, Argentina lost 4-3 to eventual winners France in 2018’s last 16, meaning they are joint-top with seven. If France and Argentina end up meeting in this year’s final, then the losers will take the outright lead as a consolation prize.
Can you help?
“Rubén Vargas scored the winning penalty for Switzerland against Colombia’s Camilo Vargas,” notes Matthew Wilkie. “Has anyone ever scored a winning goal before in the World Cup against their namesake?” [We’re also keen on examples from beyond the big dance, if you have them.]
“Mexico restarted their last-16 game illegally after England’s third goal,” writes Mike Frost. “They dribbled the ball forward instead of passing it to a teammate, and England were awarded an indirect free-kick [3h 23mins in, UK only]. I can’t recall ever seeing this happen before. Has it occurred at the World Cup, or anywhere else?”
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We’ll have one more World Cup Knowledge special next week. Send your World Cup questions and answers to [email protected].
