The World Cup final in stats

 The World Cup final in stats

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Cafu, Johan Cruyff, Bodo Illgner, Zinedine Zidane and Dino Zoff feature as FIFA+ highlights the numbers behind the biggest fixture in football.

• A long wait for a clean sheet shocked football

• Italian team-mates separated by 22 years star

• Johan Cruyff, Pele and Zinedine Zidane feature

88

Johan Neeskens of the Netherlands scored the fastest goal in a World Cup final after just 88 seconds, before opponents West Germany had even touched the ball, in 1974. The Netherlands kicked off and put 16 passes together until the ball arrived at the feet of Johan Cruyff, who befuddled Berti Vogts and Uli Hoeness to earn the first-ever spot-kick in a World Cup final, which Neeskens converted. The first penalty may have taken 44 years to be awarded, but the second took merely another 23 minutes.

Johan Neeskens Goal 2' | Netherlands vs Germany FR | 1974 FIFA World Cup Germany™

Watch every single goal from the 1974 FIFA World Cup Germany™.

60

It incredibly took sixty years for a team to keep a clean sheet in a World Cup final. After 27 teams had tried and failed, West Germany became the first in a 1-0 win over Argentina in 1990. The man who kept it, 23-year-old Bodo Illgner, remains the youngest goalkeeper to have played in global football’s showpiece match. His opposite number in the semi-finals, England’s Peter Shilton, made his top-flight debut for Leicester City one year before Ilgner was even born!

44

Spain ended a run of 44 years without a nation winning a World Cup final in their second-choice shirts in 2010. After England beat West Germany in red in 1966, West Germany had lost to Argentina in green in ’86, Argentina had fallen to West Germany in dark-blue four years later, and France had been overcome by Italy in white in 2006.

30

West Germany’s stunning, come-from-behind victory in the 1954 final ended Hungary’s 30-game unbeaten run, which remained a world record until Diego Simeone, Fernando Redondo and Gabriel Batistuta helped Argentina break it almost 40 years later. The Magical Magyars had thrashed the Die Mannschaft 8-3 in the group stage and were 2-0 up within eight minutes, but the West Germans recovered to win 3-2. It remains the only time a team has recovered a two-goal deficit to win a World Cup final.

Germany FR v Hungary | 1954 FIFA World Cup Switzerland™ | Classic Matches

Watch highlights of some of the best matches ever played in the FIFA World Cup™.

22

Twenty-two years was the mammoth age difference between Italy team-mates Giuseppe Bergomi and Dino Zoff, who were 18 and 40 respectively, in the 1982 decider. The next-biggest difference between starters from a World Cup final-winning side was the 15 years and five months between Pele and Nilton Santos in 1958. There was only four years and five months between France’s youngest and oldest starters – Zinedine Zidane and Frank Leboeuf – in 1998.

8

Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst, the men who scored England’s four goals in the 1966 final, had eight caps between them going into the tournament. The scorers of Brazil’s four goals in the next World Cup decider carried 220 caps into Mexico 1970. Hurst remains the only man to have recorded a hat-trick in the fixture.

England v Germany FR | Final | 1966 FIFA World Cup England™ | Highlights

Watch the highlights from the match between England and Germany FR played at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday, 30 July 1966.

5

Five players who started the 1958 final for Brazil didn’t start their curtain-raiser against Austria – the biggest difference between a World Cup-winning side’s XIs for their opening and concluding matches. Djalma Santos, Zito, Garrincha, Pele and Vava were those who were promoted into the team during the tournament. In the decider, 35-year-old Nils Liedholm became the oldest marksmen in a World Cup final, while Pele, at 17, became its youngest. Brazil’s 5-2 victory over Sweden remains the highest-scoring decider ever in the competition.

3

Cafu is the only man to have played in three World Cup finals. ‘The Express Train’ came on for an injured Jorginho in the first half against Italy in 1994, competed against France in 1998 and captained the side against Germany in 2002. Pele won a record three World Cups but didn’t play in the 1962 decider due to injury.

2

Vava (1958 and 1962), Pele (1958 and 1970), Paul Breitner (1974 and 1982) and Zinedine Zidane (1998 and 2006) are the only men to have scored in two World Cup finals.

Zinedine Zidane Goal 7' | Italy vs France | 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™

Watch every single goal from the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™.

2

Luis Monti is the only player to appear in the World Cup final for two different nations. The midfield hardman played for Argentina, his country of birth, against Uruguay in 1930, and for Italy against Czechoslovakia in 1934. In the latter, for the only time ever, Giampiero Combi and Frantisek Planicka ensured both teams were captained by goalkeepers.