1986 FIFA World Cup

The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was played from 31 May to 29 June 1986 at Mexico City. The tournament was the second one which had a format of 24 matches. While European nations were not permitted to host the tournament in Spain after the previous World Cup, Colombia was originally chosen by FIFA to host the tournament but was not prepared to do so, primarily for economic reasons, and was officially resigned in 1982. In May 1983, Mexico was named as the new host, and thus became the first nation to host the World Cup more than once. This was the third consecutive FIFA World Cup tournament hosted by a Spanish speaking nation, after Argentina in 1978 and Spain in 1982. Argentina also captured those. Argentina was captained by the 25-year-old Diego Maradona who played an important part in the success of his team. In the same quarter-final against England, Maradona scored the goal of "Hand of God," as well as another one voted "Goal of the Century." These were two of Maradona's five goals scored during the game and he also produced five more for his teammates. In the final at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City Argentina beat West Germany 3–2. The total final stage attendance was 2,394,031, with Canada, Denmark and Iraq making their first appearances per game on average at 46,039. The competition format changed as from 1982. The final pair of matches in each group started simultaneously, and the second round was played on a knock-out basis rather than on groups. The 24 teams that had qualified were split into six groups of four. The top two teams and the top four third-place finishers from the six groups qualified into the knockout stage for the 16 teams. Italy were the defending champions but they were defeated by France in the 16th round. The 1986 World Cup saw the introduction of a phenomenon of audience called the Mexican wave, popularized internationally after it emerged during the tournament. Originally FIFA selected Colombia as host in June 1974. However, on 5 November 1982 the Colombian authorities finally announced that they could not afford to host the World Cup under the conditions set by FIFA due to economic concerns. Mexico was chosen as the replacement hosts on May 20, 1983, holding off the bids from Canada and the U.S., and thereby becoming the first country to host two World Cups. This second Mexico World Cup stepped up 16 years after the first one in 1970. In September 1985, eight months before the tournament, a major earthquake raised questions about Mexico's capacity to manage the game, but the stadiums were not damaged, and the plans agreed to proceed. Denmark stormed with a 100 per cent record in category E, nicknamed the death squad. In their first game, they beat Scotland 1–0 and then hammered Uruguay 6–1 to a hat-trick by Preben Elkjær Larsen. Denmark defeated one of the championship favourites, West Germany, 2–0 with a penalty from Jesper Olsen and a goal from John Eriksen Scotland took the lead against West Germany after losing to Denmark thanks to a goal from Gordon Strachan but the West Germans came back to win 2–1. The Scots have been eliminated from the competition after a tense 0–0 draw against Uruguay. During that contest, Uruguay's José Batista was sent off for a foul on Strachan after less than a minute of play, a record that still stands. After a loss in Denmark, West Germany pushed through to second round. After holding both Poland and England to goalless draws, Morocco overtook Group F and defeated Portugal 3–1.