5 FIFA World Cup qualifying surprises

4) North Korea

North Korea attracted a lot of media attention during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

In a world where politics can represent a bad image towards a country, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa saw North Korea play on football's biggest stage. 2010 was not the nation's first appearance at a World Cup, in fact it was in 1966 when England hosted the tournament seeing North Korea reach the quarter-finals.

North Korea qualified by finishing runners-up to rivals South Korea and snatching the final automatic spot.

There was a lot of speculation of North Korea in the build-up and during the World Cup. Many users on social media platforms joked at players of the national team getting permission to play and many political jokes aimed at the country for having a football team at a major tournament.

The Asian team's first match was Brazil - where many expected a comfortable victory for the five time world champions.

The scoreline said otherwise. It took the Brazilians 55 minutes to break the deadlock after a tough angled shot from Maicon on the wing somehow found the target. Brazil went two ahead and looked to have finally sealed the win when Elano scored with 18 minutes remaining. Ji Yun-nam however got one back with a superb solo effort celebrating with high emotions to have scored against one of the finest footballing nations in the sport.

2-1 to Brazil was the final score but it seemed the team in yellow had underestimated their opponents that night in Johannesburg.

Sadly for North Korea, the rest of their group stage matches ended in defeats conceding 10 more goals, seven from Portugal and three from Ivory Coast.