7 most memorable World Cup playoff ties

#6 Australia vs. Iran, 1998 World Cup qualifiers

After twenty years in the wilderness when it came to the World Cup, hopes were high for Australia’s Socceroos going into the qualifiers for the 1998 tournament in France – a new generation of players from the Premier League such as Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka bolstered the side, while they now had a proven international manager in the form of Terry Venables, who was fresh off a successful term as England manager. The Aussies comfortably won the Oceania bracket of qualifying, leaving them with just Iran to defeat in order to qualify for the tournament.

The first leg was to be played in Tehran, and controversy ensued mainly due to the attitude of the Australian team and management staff towards even going to Iran. Venables himself apparently felt that the area was dangerous, and the Socceroos went as far as bringing their own water to drink for fear of picking up illness. The game saw an insane 128,000 fans attend and cram into a stadium with a capacity of 100,000. But when Harry Kewell scored a crucial away goal and the game ended 1-1, the Aussies figured they’d done enough.

Not so. In a game that would go down in Iranian folklore as the ‘Saga of Melbourne’, Australia took a 2-0 lead before the game was disrupted by notorious fan Peter Hore, who made his way onto the field and cut up the Iranian goal net, causing a pause in play while officials dealt with the incident. It was enough to stem the tide of momentum for Australia, and suddenly Iran took the front foot upon the restart and scored two late goals. The match ended 2-2 with Iran progressing on away goals, and Australia – having not actually lost a single game in qualifying – were left heartbroken and had to wait another eight years for their World Cup chance.