Comeback kings and queens at major international football tournaments

“England came from behind to win three knockout games at Euro 2024,” notes Chris Dibsdall. “Are they the first team to do this in a major international tournament?”

Sunday’s Euro 2024 was the irresistible force versus the indestructible object. Eventually Spain broke England, but for a few giddy minutes it looked like England might win Euro 2024 after conceding the first goal in all four knockout matches.

Instead they had to settle for three. We’ve been through every major continental tournament, men’s and women’s, as well as the World Cup, and we think there are only two previous instances of this happening.

The first is connected to Gareth Southgate’s England. At the 2018 World Cup, Croatia recovered to beat Denmark and Russia on penalties, then nicked football’s passport winning 2-1 after extra-time in the semi-final.

Like England, Croatia scored an equaliser in the final but went on to lose 4-2 to France. To prove they’re the most resilient rascals in the modern game, they came from behind to win three more games – Canada in the group stage, Japan and Brazil in the knockouts – at Qatar 2022.

That means the only team to win three knockout games after going behind and lift the trophy are China at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in 2022. It’s a cracking story. China breezed through the group and into the quarter-finals, beating Chinese Taipei 4-0 and Iran 7-0; then things got interesting. They conceded first to Vietnam in the quarter-final before recovering to win 3-1. In the semi-final they needed two equalisers against Japan, the second in the 119th minute. They didn’t even go ahead in the ensuing penalty shootout until the 10th and final kick.

The difficulty level rose even further in the final. China trailed 2-0 to South Korea at half-time, and that remained the score halfway through the second half. A penalty from Tang Jiali got them back in it, then Zhang Linyan equalised in the 72nd minute. International football’s greatest comeback story was complete when the substitute Xiao Yuyi scored the winner in the third minute of added time.

A couple of other teams deserve a mention. At this year’s AFC Men’s Asian Cup, South Korea, managed by Jürgen Klinsmann, came alive in injury-time. It started in the group stage, when a 91st-minute own goal by Jordan’s Yazan Al-Arab gave them a 2-2 draw. In the final group game, Korea trailed Malaysia 2-1 after 82 minutes, led 3-2 when Son Heung-min scored a penalty in the 94th – and eventually drew 3-3 after an equaliser in the 15th minute of added time.

And that was just the hors d’oeuvre. In the last 16, Cho Gue-sung scored a 99th-minute equaliser against Saudi Arabia, with South Korea eventually winning on penalties. In the quarters, Hwang Hee-chan’s 96th-minute equaliser was followed by a winner in extra-time from Son. South Korea finally ran out of time in the semi-final, losing 2-0 to Jordan.

A word too for Uruguay, who produced probably the most iconic comeback at a major tournament: the Maracanazo in 1950. That World Cup was decided by a second group stage, a round-robin in which Uruguay came from behind each time: they drew 2-2 with Spain, beat Sweden 3-2 after trailing 1-0 and 2-1, and shattered the pre-ordained champions Brazil in what was effectively the World Cup final.

Away we go

“The quarter-final against Portugal was France’s fifth game at Euro 2024,” noted Derek Robertson. “In four of them – Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal – they had to wear their away kit (so 80% of the games). Is this a record?”

“According to my research, the answer is yes and no,” writes Chris Oakley of Kitbliss. “France also wore their away kit in the semi-final against Spain, which made it five games out of six or 83%. Croatia wore their away kit 100% of the time at Euro 2008, but this was across four matches – so fewer games but a higher percentage.

“If anyone’s interested, France share the record for wearing an away kit five times in a men’s World Cup campaign. They did that in 2006 (across seven matches), a feat matched by Croatia (again) in 2018. In percentage terms for a World Cup, Costa Rica hold the record after wearing their away kit in four of their five games in 2014.”

Players going en masse from club to country

“My son asked me this great question which I could not answer,” begins Gavin Jones. “In the history of the Euros (and the World Cup for that matter), which national squad has had the largest contingent from one professional football club team?”

We don’t have a definitive answer but we’ll open the bidding with the Soviet Union squad that briefly lit up Mexico 86. Twelve of their 22 players – and the manager Valeriy Lobanovskyi – came from Dynamo Kyiv, who had just trounced Atlético Madrid in the Cup Winners’ Cup final. And most were in the starting XI. Of the team that lost 4-3 to Belgium in the second round, only the goalkeeper Rinat Dasayev and Sergey Aleynikov did not play for Kyiv.

Kyiv also supplied 11 of the 20-man squad that reached the Euro 88 final before losing to the Netherlands. Seven of them started that final.

Other teams worthy of mention include Egypt, whose 22-man Italia 90 squad included 11 players from Al-Ahly, including the brilliant young defender Hany Ramzy.

There were a mere eight Barcelona players in the Spain squad that won the 2010 World Cup – but seven of them started the final, including the match-winner Andrés Iniesta.

All the above examples are from the men’s game. In the early days of women’s international tournaments, squads were often dominated by players from a handful of clubs. Take Brazil at the inaugural Fifa World Cup in 1991. Their 18-woman squad included a whopping 16 players from Esporte Clube Radar; that’s 89%. If you can top that, you know what they do.

Losing two major finals in a row

“If England lose the Euro 2024 final, they will be the first team to lose two consecutive European Championship finals,” writes Paper Mario. “Will Southgate will be the first manager to lose two consecutive finals of a tournament or has someone achieved this before with two different teams?”

Gareth Southgate is the first to do it in the men’s Euros. But spare a thought for Gerardo Martino, whose Argentina side lost Copa América finals in successive years. And the two defeats were almost identical. In 2015 they lost 4-1 on penalties to Chile after a 0-0 draw; a year later they improved ever so slightly, losing 4-2 after another goalless draw.

Knowledge archive

“Has a professional game ever involved a player and official who were related?” asked Chris Ross in 2017. “Or, indeed, has a ref been forced to step down because of a family member participating?”

There has been a fairly recent example of this in Scotland. Steven McLean has refereed his brother, the former Northern Ireland international Brian, in reserve and youth games. “He knows he doesn’t get any favours,” said Steven in this interview. He had a punishment tool far greater than yellow or red cards. “I once booked him and told him if he committed the same offence again I’d tell mum.”

The chat between Stuart Pearce and his brother Ray was a little more Anglo-Saxon. Ray was a linesman who officiated when Stuart’s Nottingham Forest played away at Brighton in the 1986-87 Littlewoods Cup. Thanks to Andrew Rockall for sending details of the game and this confirmation.

It seems that nobody at Brighton knew about it, and it was not mentioned in the Guardian or Times match reports, or by the ITV commentator Brian Moore on Midweek Sports Special. The match ended 0-0.

Sadly the assistant referees were positioned close to the right-backs rather than the left-backs, so there was no scope for the comedic fantasy of Pearce hoofing the right-winger into orbit as his brother demonstratively waved played on. Pearce reckons his brother disallowed a Brighton goal, though that may be artistic licence: it was not on the highlights or in the paper reports. That said, one Brighton fan has a vivid memory of the incident.

“I had no fears about his honesty,” said Pearce in his autobiography. “He would err on the side of Brighton rather than favour me. No one knew, apart from the Forest team. It was funny running up the wing and having my brother alongside me on the touchline. He could have booked me because I kept taking the mickey out of him – ‘Oi, you ginger dickhead,’ is one things I remember calling him.”

Can you help?

“In the Copa América final, Argentina made a triple substitution in extra time. The three substitutes – Leandro Paredes, Giovani Lo Celso and Lautaro Martínez – then combined for the winning goal. Is there any record of something like that happening before in a final match, or at all?” asks Gabriel Zingrich.

“I stumbled across the following words in Jonathan Liew’s assessment of Harry Kane’s Euro 2024 contribution: ‘Those three goals, scored from a total distance of about 20 yards, have been crucial,’” writes James Algie. “It led me to wonder how previous major tournaments’ Golden Boot winners and hopefuls might have fared if the crucial measure was the total combined distance of each player’s goals. I dare say Gary Lineker would be robbed of his 1986 gong?”

“I recently came across Abby Wambach’s Wikipedia page and noticed she played less than half as many club games as she did internationally for the US. What is the reason for this and are there any other instances of footballers having more international appearances than club appearances?” asks DW.

“Spectators of the 1998 OFC Women’s Championship were treated to 112 goals in just 10 matches. Is 11.2 goals per game the highest average at an international tournament? Or even any tournament?” wonders Kári Tulinius.

Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.