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#1 1954 World Cup Final: West Germany 3-2 Hungary
There are some very rare teams in sports who dominate the competition to such an extent that matching up to them feels futile. One such side was Hungary of the early 1950s. From 1950 to the 1954 World Cup final, the Mighty Magyars won 26 out of 30 games- drawing the other four. They romped to the Olympic Gold and crushed a much-favoured English team in 1953’s “match of the century”.
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In the four World Cup games leading up to the final, Hungary scored 25 goals in four games- defeating a strong Brazil team in a very physical game before sneaking past defending champions Uruguay. The scariest thing about them? They had played their last three games without their best player Ferenc Puskas.
Puskas was back for the final against a West Germany side that the “Golden Team” had already crushed 8-3 in the group stages. So when Puskas and Zoltan Czibor to put Hungary 2-0 ahead within eight minutes, not many were surprised.
At that point, it seemed as if Hungary were going to romp to the World Cup. But the Germans had some very different ideas as Max Morlock capitalized on a defensive mistake by the Hungarians to pull a goal back. Nervousness crept through the Hungarian team and they soon conceded an equalizer from a corner.
Over the next 60 minutes, Hungary besieged the German goal as they missed chance after chance to take the lead. The likes of Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and Czibor rank among the best finishers in history but on that one day, they could not put the ball in the net. In the 84th minute, Germany completed the comeback as Helmut Rahn rifled home the second goal of the tournament.
What makes this the greatest knockout stage comeback in World Cup History is the simple unlikelihood of a relatively weak Germany side coming back to defeat one of the greatest international teams in footballing history. There is a reason why they call it the ‘Miracle of Bern’.
