World Cup Upsets

Just like in 1982 Argentina were defending the title they had won four years before. On the opening day this time they faced Cameroon and just like eight years earlier they were beaten.Vote for Cameroon here..... 

The 1982 World Cup in Spain was full of shock results, but surely none as big as Algeria beating West Germany in Gijon. Just to highlight the Algerians achievement, West Germany were European Champions at the time after their success at Euro 1980. Vote for Algeria here......

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Argentina were the holders and opened the 1982 World Cup Finals at the Nou Camp against Belguim. The world sat back and waited for a convincing Argentina victory. Little did we know what was about to happen. Vote for Belguim's major upset here...... 

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Germany had won the World Cup in 1990 and were hot favourites to reach the last four in 1994 when they lined up against Bulgaria in a quarter-final tie on the 10th of July. Bulgaria, however had other ideas. Vote for Bulgaria here.........

The opening game seems to be fraught with danger to defending champions and France in 2002 were no exceptions. At the time France were not only holders of the World Cup, but were also European Champions so this really was a massive upset. Vote for Senegal here......

France 1998 and the Quarter-Final match between Croatia and Germany was the scene for this shock result. The manner of the victory was more surprising than the fact that Croatia had actually won. Vote for Croatia here....

The Suwon Stadium in Korea was the place, June 5th 2002 was the date. It was both sides first game in Group D and few people expected USA to beat Portugal, but beat them they did in a thrilling encounter. Vote for USA here.....

South Korea were joint hosts of the 2002 World Cup with Japan and after qualifying from Group D as winners were expected to have their tournament ended by Italy at the last sixteen stage, but the Koreans were not about to disappoint their adoring fans. Vote for S.Korea here...

Surely one of the major contenders to take this category. Northern Ireland beat Spain in front of their home fans with a Gerry Armstrong goal and reached the quarter-finals in the process. Magical scenes followed the game with Northern Ireland being the smallest nation ever to reach the last eight of a World Cup. Vote for Northern Ireland here.....

Giants Stadium 1994 and the opening group game between Italy and Republic of Ireland. Ray Houghton scored the only goal, but Paul McGrath was a giant in defence and it was his performance that went a long way to upsetting the Italians. Vote for Republic of Ireland here.....

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