Flying Down to Rio - Flight Fourteen

During the research for this series I’ve uncovered a whole mountain of trivia. So I thought you might enjoy a quiz?  Well maybe not so much a quiz as a 'quess-aramma.' Check out these questions to test your knowledge of the World Cup Finals. Remember there have been 19 competitions and 18 Finals.

The answers are at the end, no peeking till you have answered them all. Don’t worry you cant do worse than I did. So give it your best guess !

Please let us know how you did and leave a comment.

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Ten quick questions.

1. How many games do you think have been watched by crowds of  100,000 plus  ?

2. What country do you think has played the most games in the Finals ?

3. Which country has won the trophy the most times ?

4. Which country has scored the most goals ?

5. How many countries have played in the Finals ?

6. What is the most common scoreline?

7. How many games have gone to extra time ?

8. How many Finals have been won in extra -time ?

9. How many Finals then went to a penalty shoot-out ?

10. Which team has gone to extra time the most times ?

1966 - Pickles has lunch with Heavyweight Boxer Henry Cooper.

1958 - Puma advert featuring Brazil.

Answers

1. Well that's happened at 17 different World Cup games. All these games have been played in Mexico City or Rio. There wont be an 18th this summer as the Maracana stadium is now all seated with a capacity of only 73,531.

2. That honour goes to Germany. They have played 99. The 100th will be on 16th June when they play Portugal. Brazil are in second place with 97. The Brazilians have played in two more Finals tournaments than the Germanys.

3. Brazil may have played less games but they are the Tournaments most successful side with five wins. Italy  have 4, Germany 3, Argentina and Uruguay 2 each  and England, Spain and France have one win.

4. That is Brazil as well, they top the goal charts with 210 goals (or as the Brazilians say Goooooooooal), Germany have 206, then a long way back is Italy with 126 and Argentina with 123 are fourth.  

5. 76 different countries have competed in the Finals. The 77th will be this summer, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

6. The most common is 1-0 which has occurred in 18.8 % of games. 2-1 is next on 14.5 %, and 2-0 with 11%. Further back on 9.8% is 1-1, and 0-0 has 8.2%.

7. The number of games going to extra time is 55. This includes one-third of  the 18  Finals.

8. Four Finals have been won in extra time.  Italy, England, Argentina and Spain did it in 1934, 1966, 1978 and 2010 respectively.

9. There have been two shoot-outs. Brazil won in 1994 and Italy in 2006.

10.The team that’s played extra time the most is Italy with 11 games. They actually won 10 of those games. Germany, England and France have gone to extra time nine, eight and seven times respectively, while Argentina, Brazil and Spain have done so six times apiece.

Thanks to FIFA.

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Keith Harrison, 155
Nilgiris, TN
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