The Ball Rolls

14.06.2018 21:00 WC 2026
It's underway: The 2018 World Cup kicks off with the match between host Russia and Saudi Arabia. For both teams, the game can already be decisive with regard to advancing to the knockout stages: In the evenly matched group with Uruguay and Egypt, there is no true favorite and no real underdog. This should add some tension to the match that will kick off the World Cup.

Here we want to take a look at the opening matches of previous tournaments: The match between France and Mexico was the first World Cup match ever. France won the match 4:1. In later World Cup tournaments, there were no real opening matches; rather, several matches took place simultaneously.

In 1966, there was then a first match where the host had the spotlight: In 1966, England could become World Champion in front of home fans, but in the opening match against Uruguay could only manage a 0:0 draw. Mexico also could not get past a 0:0 draw against the Soviet Union in 1970. In 1974, Germany was the host and won 1:0 against Chile in the opening match. Paul Breitner was the only goalscorer at the time. In 1978, Germany as the defending World Champion played the opening match: here too it ended 0:0 against the opponent Poland at the time.

Belgium pulled off a major upset in 1982 in the opening match against World Champion Argentina: The Belgians won 1:0 also because goalkeeper Pfaff (later at Bayern Munich) played superbly and the young Maradona could not have the impact he would have four years later at the 1986 World Cup. At the World Cup there was also an upset when defending World Champion Italy could not get past a 1:1 draw against Bulgaria. The next bombshell came in 1990 when later finalist Argentina lost 1:0 against Cameroon with Roger Milla. At the 1994 World Cup, the favorite came through with Germany's 1:0 victory against Bolivia. Jürgen Klinsmann scored the goal.

This was also the case in 1998 when Brazil won 2:1 against Scotland. It was the first opening match of a World Cup - with the exception of 1930 - in which a team scored more than just one goal. In 2002 came the next surprise: Senegal won 1:0 against France. Germany began the summer fairy tale 2006 with a 4:2 victory against Costa Rica.

In 2010, South Africa and Mexico drew 1:1, while in 2014 it became a bit more goal-rich with Brazil's 3:1 victory against Croatia.