1982 Football World Cup - Spain
Copa del Mundo de Fútbol - España 82
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Official 1982 Football World Cup poster
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Official 1982 Football World Cup logo
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| Participant teams
| 107
(final tournament: 24)
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| Host
| Spain
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| Champions
| Italy (3rd title)
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| Matches played
| 52
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| Goals scored
| 146
(2.81 per match)
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| Attendance
| 1,856,277
(35,698 per match)
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Top scorer/
Golden Shoe
| Paolo Rossi (ITA)
6 goals
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Best player/
Golden Ball
| Paolo Rossi (ITA)
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The 1982 Football World Cup was held in Spain. It was won by Italy, who beat West Germany 3-1 in the final. With its third World Cup title (after 1934 and 1938), Italy drew level with record champions Brazil.
The format of the competition changed from 1978: for the first time, 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. Top two teams in each group would advance to the second round, where they would be split into four groups of three. The winners of each group will advance to the semifinals. This was the only World Cup to be played under this format.
One of the most memorable games of the tournament was the semifinal between Germany and France. It had a horrible incident when German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher brutally fouled the attacking French player Patrick Battiston on his way to a certain goal, leaving him unconscious. The French were shocked when the referee did not even award them a free kick, much less give Schumacher the deserved red card. But the match had also great moments in sport: after the game ended 1-1 on regulation, the French scored two goals during extra time to lead 3-1. But the German team did not give up and scored two goals themselves to equalise the game. The extra time ended 3-3 and the Germans won the following penalty shoot-out 5-4.
After being upset by Algeria in their opening game, West Germany knew that a 1-0 win over Austria in the group's last game would send both those teams into the second round at the expense of the Africans as Algeria already played their three matches. That is exactly what hapenned, as the Germans scored early and both teams just kicked the ball around for the rest of the game. This led to the final group games being played simultenously, starting at the 1986 World Cup.
Italian Paolo Rossi won the Golden Boot, scoring six goals.
First round
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Second round
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Semifinals
Third place match
Final
