The World Cup third place playoff: A recent history
To many it is the most meaningless match in the entire World Cup.
Two teams who probably wanted to go straight home after they were knocked out of the semi-finals meet to determine who will finish third and fourth in the tournament. Fifa insist upon it, and so players from Uruguay and Germany, including Lukas Podolski (pictured), will walk out at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on tonight with victory in mind.
Previous matches have been entertaining, but are largely forgotten about, and so you’d be forgiven for not remembering what happened. Here’s how the last five went:
Italy 2 England 1, Bari, July 7th 1990
Neither side wanted to be here after losing agonising penalty shoot-outs in the semi-finals, and it showed, but the game would at least be remembered for a farcical goal.
Seventy-one minutes had been played when Steve McMahon played a backpass to England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who didn’t see an onrushing Roberto Baggio and brought him down in the confusion. It was stonewall penalty, but play continued, and after Toto Schillaci nutmegged Des Walker, he found Baggio, who coolly finished into the roof of the net.
England replied though, and a terrific cross from left-back Tony Dorigo was powerfully headed into the net by David Platt, but it was to be the Italians who had the final say, and, four minutes from time, after Schillaci was tripped by Paul Parker, the forward picked himself up and sent Shilton the wrong way from the penalty spot. It was his sixth goal of the finals, taking him clear of the Czech Republic’s Tomáš Skuhravý and earning him the Golden Boot.
Sweden 4 Bulgaria 0, Pasadena, July 16th 1994
There were 91,500 people packed inside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena – which would host the final on the following day – to see this third-placed play-off between the two shock semi-finalists, but it appeared as though the Bulgarians had run out of steam, and they were blown away inside the first 45 minutes.
Sweden were much quicker to everything, and Tomas Brolin headed them in front early on after terrific work from Klas Ingesson down the right wing, before three goals inside 10 first-half minutes confirmed victory.
First, Håkan Mild doubled the advantage after racing onto Brolin’s quickly taken free-kick, before Henrik Larsson broke the Bulgarian offside trap, rounded goalkeeper Borislav Mihaylov, and fooled defender Trifon Ivanov before rolling in the third, and Kennet Andersson beat the hapless Mihaylov to a cross to head in the fourth shortly before half time. Mercifully for the Bulgarians, that is where the scoring ended.
Netherlands 1 Croatia 2, Paris, June 11th 1998
The Netherlands made changes to their line-up following their penalty shoot-out defeat at the hands of Brazil, and it didn’t take long for the Croatians to take advantage of Dutch uncertainty, as Robert Prosinečki shot low into the bottom corner.
One of those Dutch changes was soon to reply in fine style though, and a terrific run from Bolo Zenden ended in a powerful, swerving shot from distance that beat Dražen Ladić, before Davor Šuker notched his sixth goal of the tournament – the strike that earned him the Golden Boot – with a precise low, left footed finish across Edwin van der Sar following good work from Aljoša Asanović.
South Korea 2 Turkey 3, Daegu, June 29th 2002
The two surprise packages of the 2002 World Cup met in Daegu, and it didn’t take long to heat up.
Comic defending from the joint hosts’ captain Hong Myung-Bo allowed Hakan Şükür in to score the fastest goal in World Cup history after just 10.89 seconds, and after Lee Eul-Yong levelled matters with a sublime left-footed free-kick, two quickfire goals from Turkish pin-up boy İlhan Mansız – again profiting from some generous defending – put his side in control with barely half an hour played.
Guus Hiddink’s South Koreans were a resilient bunch though, and Song Chung-Gug pulled a goal back in stoppage time with an effort that was deflected in off the backside of team-mate Cha Doo-Ri, but Şenol Güneş’ Turks held on to clinch third spot in what was comfortably their best World Cup campaign.
Germany 3 Portugal 1, Stuttgart, July 8th 2006
A match remembered for a fine performance from a 21-year-old Bastian Schweinsteiger, and for a spectacular dive from a 21-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo. An uneventful first half was lit up by Ronaldo’s terrific tumble on the edge of the German penalty area, complete with a twisted somersault and anguished look at Japanese referee Toru Kamikawa. There was no German player near him.
Luckily some football broke out in the second half though, and Schweinsteiger lashed Germany in front with a swerving, long-range effort that goalkeeper Ricardo should have done better with, before the German midfielder’s wicked free-kick deflected in off Portuguese midfielder Petit four minutes later.
The best of the bunch was to come though, and Schweinsteiger cut inside from the left flank to crash home Germany’s third of the game from 25 yards out, but there was still time for Luís Figo to climb off the bench and, on his 127th and final appearance for Portugal, set up Nuno Gomes for a consolation.
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