With international glory and national folklore at stake, the World Cup final represents one of – if not the – most stress-inducing fixture in the footballing world.
Some finals are played with mind-boggling freedom and produce goal feasts, but others are the more cagey affairs that you’d expect for such weighted occasions – with some sides unable to be separated when that 90th-minute whistle is sounded.
A total of seven World Cup finals have been decided in non-regulation time, with two going the whole distance. So, what finals have gone to extra time?
Italy hosted the second edition of the World Cup in 1934 and, after narrow victories at the quarter-final and semi-final stages following a 7-1 win over the United States in the last 16, ended up winning the whole thing as they overcame Czechoslovakia in the final.
The final took a worrying turn when Czechoslovakia took a late lead in the 71st minute, but Raimundo Orsi equalised ten minutes later to take the game to extra time. Prolific striker Angelo Schiavio took just five minutes into the additional period to net the winner and earn the Azzurri their first of four world triumphs.
Of course a World Cup final has gone to extra time! Who could ever forget this one?! One of the greatest ever World Cup finals, England’s 4-2 extra-time victory over West Germany will live very long in the memory.
The Three Lions might have been disheartened when their opposition took a strong position to deny them a home-soil World Cup win with a 12th-minute opener. A quick Geoff Hurst reply and Martin Peters’ 78th-minute strike, however, turned that feeling right around.
Wolfgang Weber’s last-gasp equaliser might have felt like a dagger in the heart for the near-97,000-strong crowd at Wembley, but it did set up a bit of history.
101st and 120th-minute goals from Hurst (we won’t mention the legality of his second and England’s third) sealed England’s first and, to date, only World Cup crown as well as standing him alone as the only player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
Argentina and Netherlands both finished runners-up in their respective groups in the first round, but topped them in the second round to advance to the 1978 final.
The Netherlands might have been hopeful of avoiding a second consecutive World Cup final defeat when Dick Nanninga’s late strike cancelled out Mario Kempes’ first-half opener for La…
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