The FIFA World Cup Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

In which match did the hosts win their first World Cup, beating Brazil 3-0, amid lasting mystery over the Brazilian forward Ronaldo, who suffered some kind of fit hours before kick-off, was left off the team sheet, then reinstated and played through the game in a daze?

Question 2

Which match, played in the Estadio Azteca and the first World Cup final broadcast in colour, saw Brazil beat Italy 4-1, finishing with a flowing team move rounded off by the captain Carlos Alberto?

Question 3

What describes the six nations that have lifted the World Cup on their own soil: Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934, England in 1966, West Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978 and France in 1998?

Question 4

Which match holds the record for the biggest winning margin in World Cup finals history, a nine-goal thrashing at the 1982 tournament in Spain in which the losing side conceded ten for the first time?

Question 5

Which team pulled off 'the Miracle of Bern' by winning the 1954 final 3-2, coming from two goals down against a Hungarian side that had not lost a match in four years and had thrashed them 8-3 earlier in the same tournament?

Question 6

Which Italy striker, just back from a two-year ban for his role in a match-fixing scandal, scored a hat-trick to knock out favourites Brazil in 1982 and then goals in the semi-final and final as Italy won the tournament?

Question 7

What name was given to a bad-tempered 2006 last-16 tie between Portugal and the Netherlands, in which the Russian referee Valentin Ivanov showed a record 16 yellow cards and four reds, leaving both teams with nine men?

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About The FIFA World Cup

The World Cup is the most watched sporting event on Earth, a month-long tournament held every four years since 1930, with a break only for the Second World War. This quiz covers the men's competition in eighty questions. Each describes a player, a winning team, a host, a final, a trophy, a rule, a moment or an administrator, and asks you to name it from four choices, then explains what happened, the records and the argument that usually goes with it. Every answer is a single name chosen from four, so nothing turns on remembering exact scores or dates, and the questions are written to be followed whether or not you saw the match.

The first pack is the essentials: the first tournament in Uruguay; the two trophies, the stolen Jules Rimet cup and the current one; FIFA itself; the giants Pele, Maradona and Messi; the most successful nations, Brazil and Germany; the 1950 Maracana defeat; Zidane's two finals; Geoff Hurst's hat-trick; the Golden Boot and Just Fontaine's untouchable 13; England 1966; Miroslav Klose's scoring record; the vuvuzela; the penalty shootout; Kylian Mbappe; and how the format has grown.

The second pack widens out. The other winners, Italy, Argentina, France and Spain. The great finals and matches: the Miracle of Bern, the 1970 and 1974 finals, the shootouts of 1994 and 2006, the Ronaldo redemption of 2002, and Germany's 7-1 demolition of Brazil in 2014. The players: Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Bobby Moore, Puskas, Garrincha, Rossi, Ronaldo, Cafu, Kahn, Lineker, Neymar. The hosts and their stories, from Qatar 2022 back to USA 1994. And the furniture of the modern game: the golden goal, video review, the Adidas ball, the Maracana, the Group of Death, the confederations, the mascot, and the two most cynical matches ever played, the Battle of Santiago and the Disgrace of Gijon.

The third pack is the records and the governance: Jules Rimet and the Hand of God; the FIFA corruption case and the presidents Blatter and Infantino; Lev Yashin and the goalkeeping award; the biggest win, the fastest goal, the oldest player; the women's World Cup; goal-line technology and the vanishing spray; the six hosts who won at home; the 1966 ghost goal; the third-place play-off and the qualifying tournament; the 48-team 2026 edition; and Zaire's chastening debut. Because a photograph of a player, a team or a host stadium almost always gives the answer away, images are used only where a neutral building or object does not, and every figure has been checked. A few common misconceptions get straightened out along the way: that there was no single final match in 1950, only a decisive last group game; that the original trophy was won outright by Brazil and later stolen for good; that only European and South American teams have ever lifted the cup; and that England's disputed 1966 goal has never actually been settled.