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#2 West Germany vs Hungary - 1954
The 1954 World Cup Final was the first World Cup final in which both finalists had met each other earlier in the tournament. The match featured Hungary, who were considered favourites. They were on a 32-match unbeaten streak in five years and had their famous Magical Magyars squad which boasted of skipper Ferenc Puskas, considered the best player in the world at that time, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Kidegkuti, Zoltan Czibor, Jozsef Bozsik and goalkeeper Gyula Grosics.
The Hungarians had such a great tournament that even with Puskas ruled out of two matches due to injury, they beat last edition’s runners-up Brazil in the quarter-finals and defending champions Uruguay in the semi-final. Their opponents were a West German side whom they had beaten 8-3 in the group stages and had to qualify for the quarter-finals through a playoff against Turkey.
However, West Germany fared well in the knockout stages beating Yugoslavia 2-0 and then thrashing Austria 6-1 in the semi-finals. The side boasted of quality players like Fritz Walter, Helmut Rahn, Max Morlock and Hans Schafer.
The final began with Hungary attacking from the very first minute and captain Ferenc Puskas scored after just six minutes to break the deadlock. Within two minutes, Hungary were 2-0 up thanks to Zoltan Czibor. West Germany showed immediate retaliation and Max Morlock pulled one back in the 10th minute. Then Helmut Rahn equalized for the Germans eight minutes later.
The scores remained 2-2 at half time with both teams having missed several chances to take the lead. In the second half, Hungary had several shots on goal but they were foiled time and again by German goalkeeper Toni Turek. With six minutes left, West Germany finally took the lead through Helmut Rahn who scored his second of the tournament. Two minutes before time, Puskas scored but his goal was ruled offside.
West Germany pulled off one of the upsets of all time by beating perhaps the greatest Hungarian side ever. However, the match remains controversial to many. One being the equalizer for West Germany in which Hans Schafer obstructed Hungarian goalkeeper Gyula Grosics and the ball reached Helmut Rahn.
Another controversy is rumours that German players had been injected with performance enhancing substances, allegations which the German players denied stating that these were glucose injections to cure jaundice which some players had fallen ill with owing to a contaminated needle. The biggest controversy is the offside ruling of Ferenc Puskas’ late shot as many people including a German substitute Alfred Pfaff claim the referee to be wrong regarding the offside decision.
Read more here: Iconic World Cup Moments – When the Golden Team were miraculously defeated at Bern
