5 Strangest Football Matches of All Time

#3 West Germany vs Austria (1982)

West Germany and Austria lined-up before Kick-off

Another strange incident took place at Espana '82 when West Germany played against Austria in the final group game of the first round. The game saw disgraceful collusion between the Austrian and West German players that resulted in the subsequent elimination of debutantes Algeria.

Algeria played their final group game a day before which meant both West Germany and Austria knew exactly what they had to do in order to proceed to the next round. A West German victory by a goal or two would've resulted in qualification of West Germany and Austria into the next round, a large victory by three goals or more by West Germany would have seen the latter qualify along with Algeria and a draw or Austrian victory would've eliminated the West Germans with Austria proceeding along with the Algerians.

West Germany took the lead in the 10th minute through a goal by Horst Hrubesch but after the goal was scored the game took an ugly turn as both the teams resorted to a very defensive style of play and passed the ball among themselves in their own half and hardly made any attempts to score. The game ended 1-0 in favor of the West Germans which meant they along with Austria qualified to the next round.

The players received flak for their disgraceful display; however, FIFA was unable to take any action against the teams as they didn't break any rules. The game was given the name "Disgrace of Gijon" and became the primary reason why final group games in most international tournaments today have a simultaneous kick-off time.