Underdog victories at the World Cup: biggest upsets

The expansion to 48 teams for the World Cup opens the tournament to even more surprises. Using the Fifa men’s world ranking system, introduced in 1993, each match in which an underdog beat a higher-ranked side was analysed; the ranking gap determined an “upset score”, with larger gaps shown as bigger circles in the accompanying graphics.

Upsets are marked in red and matches decided on penalties carry a white border. Several tournaments have produced lasting shocks. In 1994 there were frequent group-stage upsets, including Belgium (27) beating the Netherlands (2) and Saudi Arabia (34) defeating Morocco (28), while Bulgaria (29) reached the quarter-finals after Yordan Letchkov’s header sank top-ranked Germany (1) and victories over Argentina (8) and Mexico (16).

France 1998 delivered an underdog final as hosts France (17) beat Brazil (1) 3-0 with two Zidane headers, and Nigeria (74) upset Spain (15) 3-2 in the group stage. Host nations and debutants have often been part of the story.

world cup, fifa rankings, underdog, upset score, 1994 world, 1998 world, bulgaria, yordan letchkov, zidane, nigeria