HIBAPRESS-RABAT-FIFA
Each week, FIFA stinks on a new FIFA ™ World Cup record. Today, zoom in on the only two nations to have picked up three goals during a final phase.
Abba, Elvis Presley and Oasis had theirs. Mohammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps and Tiger Woods too, each at their level. False or forgotten stars because of their state of form, circumstances, scandals or arguments, they all made a resounding return to the front of the stage.
Many beautiful sports stories are based on this concept, and more precisely on the conviction that a match or a competition is never lost, on hope-as tiny as it is-to manage to realize the ‘Impossible, sometimes against all logic.
In club football, the examples are legion: just in the UEFA Champions League, everyone remembers the incredible Liverpool comeback in the 2005 final, when the Reds gleaned the Title to penalties after being led 3-0 at halftime by AC Milan (3-3 AP, 3 tab at 2); Or the famous “Rontada”, 12 years later, of FC Barcelona, qualified thanks to six goals scored (6-1) after having lost 4-0 his round of 16 go against Paris Saint-Germain; Or also the authentic exploit of Manchester United, able to score two goals in the game stops in the 1999 final game against Bayern Munich (2-1).
Regarding the FIFA ™ World Cup, Austria and Portugal are particularly distinguished. These are indeed the only two countries to have ever gathered a handicap of three goals to finally prevail over the largest of the scenes, in 1954 and 1966 respectively.
Austria 7-5 Switzerland (Switzerland 1954)
Back in the World Cup for the first time since 1934, Austria won its two group matches, against Scotland (1-0) and Czechoslovakia (5-0). She competes her quarter-final against Switzerland, who needed a dam against Italy (4-1) to access this stage of the competition.
Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, suffocates in this summer afternoon. Temperatures flirt with 40 ° C and the humidity is more than 80%. The conditions are therefore far from ideal for a match which will however establish several goals records, one of which is still due today: that of the most prolific meeting in the history of the World Cup (12 goals) .
-Switzerland, led by the Austrian Karl Rappan, trained a lot of archery during its preparation and that pays, since it settles the sights from the start of the game. Robert Ballaman thus opens the brand in the 16th minute, then Josef Hügi signs a double in stride. After 20 minutes, the premises are already leading 3-0.
Although his troops only had three days of rest after the dam against Italy, Rappan aligns an unchanged starting eleven and, slowly but surely, heat and fatigue do their work, without forgetting the talent of Austrians . Even before half an hour of play, they set the record straight thanks to a double of Theodor Wagner and another achievement by Alfred Körner.
Captain Ernst Ocwirk then gave the advantage to his family before Körner also went to his double, so much so that Austria finds himself at 5-3 … in the 34th minute. Ballaman reduces the brand before half-time, becoming at the same time the fourth player of the match to tremble more than once the net, and the two teams return to the locker room on the 5-4 score. Wagner and Hügi then improve their individual statistics, then the Austrian Erich Probst ends the suspense a quarter of an hour from the term. The famous Swiss lock will therefore have finally jumped in this competition where, the next day, the “Battle of Bern” rages between Brazil and Hungary (Hungarian 4-2 victory). Austria will later win third place, before Western Germany dominates Hungary 3-2 in an epic final, passed to posterity under the name of “Miracle of Bern”.
Portugal 5-3 RDP Korea (England 1966)
After having beat-and eliminated-Italy to everyone’s surprise in its last group of the 1966 edition (1-0), the RDP Korea is entitled to a quarter of the most full-bodied, since it defies a Portugal team which has just chained three successes against Hungary (3-1), Bulgaria (3-0) and Brazil (3-1) by scoring three times each time.
This is the first time that a country of Asia has reached the quarter -finals of a World Cup (the next time in 2002) and faced with Portuguese led by the legendary Eusebio, Mário Coluna and other António Simões, Observers give it very little chance.
But at the Liverpool Goodison Park, against all odds, the North Koreans find the entrance flaw on a superb strike of Pak Seung-Zin, then aggravates the brand by Li Dong-Woon and Yang Seung-Kook to lead 3-0 After 25 minutes.
It was then that the “black panther” took out her claws: Eusebio first brings his own to a goal before half-time, and it only needs nine minutes to equalize the return of the locker room. The native of Mozambique transforms a penalty three minutes later that he himself caused to offer a quadrupled. José Augusto takes away all suspense by scoring a fifth goal ten minutes from the final whistle, avoiding his country to tremble even more in the face of an outsider who will have long believed in his high star.
Elébio will also mark in the following two matches of the Seleção Das Quinas, first on the occasion of the 2-1 defeat against the English hosts in the semi-finals then in the match for third place won 2-1 ahead ‘Soviet Union, which allows him to finish top scorer in the competition with nine achievements.
