Qualifying countries
The '1986 FIFA World Cup', the 13th staging of the
FIFA World Cup, was held in
Mexico from
May 31 to
June 29. It was won by
Argentina (second title after
1978), who beat
West Germany 3-2 in the final at
Mexico City's
Estadio Azteca.
Location
Colombia was originally chosen as
hosts by
FIFA in June 1974. However, the Colombian authorities declared in November 1982 that they could not afford to host the World Cup under the terms that FIFA demanded.
Mexico was selected on
May 20,
1983 as the replacement hosts, beating the bids of
Canada, and the
United States (who eventually hosted the
1994 World Cup), and became the first nation to host two World Cups. This second World Cup in Mexico came only 16 years after the first one in
1970. A severe
earthquake in September 1985, eight months before the tournament, cast doubt over Mexico's ability to organize the event; however, the stadiums were not affected and it was decided to go ahead with the preparations.
As 1986 had been declared the International Year of Peace by the
United Nations, the advertising boards of all the stadia displayed the emblems of
FIFA and the
United Nations along with the legend "Football for Peace - Peace Year".
Qualification
Main articles: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification
Three teams qualified for the World Cup for the first time:
Canada,
Denmark and
Iraq. Canada clinched its spot after winning the final match against
Honduras 2-1 in
St. John's, Newfoundland, with the Hondurans wearing
tuques and gloves on the field due to the cold weather.
Iraq played all matches on neutral ground due to Iran-Iraq war.
Summary
The format of the competition changed from
1982: again 24 teams qualified and were divided into six groups of four, but the second round groups were replaced by a knockout competition, for which 16 teams qualified as follows: the six group winners, the six group runners-up, and the four third-placed teams with the best records. Also, in response to the controversial
1982 match in which West Germany and
Austria produced exactly the result which both teams knew beforehand would advance them to the next phase at the expense of
Algeria, FIFA decreed that the final two matches in all groups kick off simultaneously. This system has been used at all subsequent FIFA World Cups.
The tournament produced many great games and great goals, some of the most entertaining teams to watch were the
USSR,
Denmark and
France. Out of three British nations who qualified,
England was the only team out of the three to advance, only saved by
Gary Lineker's hat-trick in the final match against
Poland after losing to
Portugal and drawing with
Morocco.
Scotland were drawn in the "Group Of Death" with Denmark, West Germany and
Uruguay and never looked like scoring enough goals to advance.
Northern Ireland rued missed chances against Algeria in their opening 1-1 draw and were up against it after that with games against
Spain and
Brazil next. They fought hard against Spain but went down 2-1, and against Brazil they were simply outclassed, 3-0.
The official 1986 FIFA World Cup poster.
There were other notable mentions to come out of an entertaining group section of the tournament.
South Korea nearly stunned defending champions
Italy, but eventually lost 3-2.
Canada, despite having no domestic league of their own, were not humiliated and went home with a respectable record in what was their first and so far last World Cup appearance. France and the Soviet Union advanced from that group. Morocco stunned observers with their football as they won by far the most uninspiring group of the tournament ahead of England and Poland. Denmark advanced with West Germany and Uruguay from the "Group Of Death", even though the Uruguayans' style of play won few admirers. Brazil and Spain qualified easily, whilst host nation,
Mexico,
Paraguay and
Belgium advanced from Group B, despite three fighting performances from first timers
Iraq.
Argentina coasted through Group A with Italy and a dour
Bulgarian side.
The second round saw all the favourites through except the Soviet Union, who were beaten 4-3 in
León against Belgium. Denmark, who were billed as dark horses for the tournament, were also eliminated although there was nothing gracious about their exit as they went from a 1-0 lead to a 5-1 battering against Spain; key player
Frank Arnesen was suspended for the game after being sent off against West Germany in their last group match, for taking a swipe at German playmaker
Lothar Matthäus. Brazil, England, Mexico and Argentina got through to the quarter-finals stage.
France, who beat the defending champions Italy 2-0 in the second round, and Brazil, were viewed as contenders for this World Cup. They met in the quarter-finals in
Guadalajara.
Careca and
Michel Platini traded goals in the first half, and
Telê Santana's Brazilians hit the woodwork twice and missed a penalty by
Zico 12 minutes from the end of regulation time, saved by French goalkeeper
Joël Bats. After a 1-1 draw after
extra time, France won a dramatic
penalty shootout 4-3 to reach the semifinals. However, just as in Spain four years earlier, their dreams of World Cup glory were ended by the West German team, who had only squeezed past Morocco (1-0) and Mexico (0-0, 4-1 on penalties) in the earlier rounds.
Argentina's captain
Diego Maradona was at the peak of his form and he scored five goals in the tournament. His most memorable performance came during the quarter-final against England, where he scored two of the most famous World Cup goals in the 2-1 victory. Maradona's first was scored illegally, as he punched the ball into the goal past England goalkeeper
Peter Shilton. The referee did not see the foul and the goal was given as valid. After the game, Maradona claimed the goal was scored "A bit with the head of Maradona and another bit with the hand of God"; it was known as the "
The Hand of God" goal. For his second goal, voted "
Goal of the Century" in 2002 on the FIFA website, Maradona dribbled half the length of the field past five English players before scoring. Argentina then beat Belgium 2-0 in the semi-finals with two more goals from Maradona.
In the final, Argentina jumped to a 2-0 lead after 55 minutes, but West Germany scored two goals to equalize with only 10 minutes left. Then with 7 minutes left,
Jorge Burruchaga scored the winning goal after receiving a pass from Maradona. The Argentines were crowned World Cup winners for the second time, and 30 million people in Argentina celebrated in the streets after the final victory. Maradona was the
Golden Ball winner as the best player of the tournament, while Gary Lineker of England won the
Golden Boot as the leading scorer of the World Cup, with six goals.
Mascot
''Pique''.
The
official mascot of this World Cup was ''Pique'', a
jalapeño pepper, characteristic of
Mexican cuisine, with a
moustache, a
sombrero, and Mexican football team colours. Its name comes from ''picante'', Spanish for spicy peppers and sauces.
Venues
Eleven cities hosted the tournament. Seeded teams are in 'bold'.
| 'City' | 'Stadium' | 'Capacity' | 'Matches' | 'Teams hosted in the first round' |
| Puebla | Estadio Cuauhtémoc | 46,000 | Group A, R2, QF, Third-place match | '' |
| Mexico | Estadio Olimpico Universitario | 72,000 | Group A, R2 | , , |
| Mexico | Estadio Azteca | 114,600 | Opening match, Group B, QF, SF, Final | '' |
| Toluca | Estadio Nemesio Díez | 30,000 | Group B | , , |
| Leon | Estadio Nou Camp | 35,000 | Group C, R2 | '' |
| Irapuato | Estadio Sergio León Chavez | 32,000 | Group C | , , |
| Guadalajara | Estadio Jalisco | 66,000 | Group D, R2, QF, SF | '' |
| Guadalajara | Estadio Tres de Marzo | 30,000 | Group D |
★ , ,
★ |
| Queretaro | Estadio La Corregidora | 40,785 | Group E, R2 | '' |
| Nezahualcoyotl | Estadio Neza 86 | 35,000 | Group E | , , |
| Monterrey | Estadio Tecnológico | 38,000 | Group F | '' |
| Monterrey | Estadio Universitario | 44,000 | Group F, R2, QF | ,
★ ,
★ |
★ ''Poland and Portugal played in Guadalajara while Spain and Algeria played in Monterrey.''
Match officials
;Africa
★
Ali Bin Nasser
★
Edwin Picon-Ackong
★
Idrissa Traore
;Asia
★
Fallaj Al-Shanar
★
Jamal Al Sharif
★
Shizuo Takada
;Europe
★
Luigi Agnolin
★
Horst Brummeier
★
Valeri Butenko
★
Vojtěch Christov
★
George Courtney
★
André Daina
★
Bogdan Dotchev
★
Erik Fredriksson
★
Ioan Igna
★
Jan Keizer
★
Siegfried Kirschen
★
Lajos Németh
★
Zoran Petrović
★
Alexis Ponnet
★
Joël Quiniou
★
Volker Roth
★
Victoriano Sánchez Arminio
★
Carlos Silva Valente
★
Alan Snoddy
;North and Central America
★
Rómulo Méndez
★
Antonio Márquez Ramírez
★
David Socha
★
Berny Ulloa Morera
;Oceania
★
Chris Bambridge
;South America
★
Romualdo Arppi Filho
★
Jesús Díaz
★
Carlos Esposito
★
Gabriel González
★
José Luis Martínez Bazan
★
Hernán Silva
Squads
For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see ''
1986 FIFA World Cup squads''.
Results
First round
''All times local'' (
UTC-6)
Group A
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '5' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 |
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | +1 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -2 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -3 |
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Group B
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '5' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| '0' | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -3 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group C
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '5' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +8 |
| '5' | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 |
| '2' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | -7 |
| '0' | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | -5 |
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----
----
Group D
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '6' | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 |
| '4' | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | -4 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group E
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '6' | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +8 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | -5 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
----
----
----
----
----
Group F
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '4' | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
| '2' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 |
----
----
----
----
----
Third place qualifiers for round of 16
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| '3' | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -2 |
| '2' | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | -5 |
| '2' | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | -7 |
| '1' | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 |
Bulgaria and
Uruguay became the first nations to qualify for the knockout stage without winning a game. (
Netherlands and the
Republic of Ireland repeated the feat in
1990, and
Chile in
1998.) In
1982 Italy advanced from the first group phase to the second group phase on the strength of just three draws and went on to win the tournament.
Knockout stage
Round of 16
----
----
----
----
----
----
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Quarter-finals
----
----
----
Semi-finals
----
Third place match
Final
Awards
| 1986 World Cup Winners |
|---|
 Argentina
'Argentina'
'Second title' |
Scorers
Other facts
★ During the Group E game between
Uruguay and
Scotland,
José Batista of Uruguay was
sent off after less than one minute of play, a
World Cup record that still stands.
★ During the match between
Brazil and
Spain, the Spanish team had a shot that was later proved by television slow motion replays to have bounced behind the goal line after hitting the crossbar. No goal was awarded, as none of the match officials could be sure that the ball had crossed the line, and Brazil won the match 1-0.
★ The
Portuguese team, making their first appearance in 20 years, went on strike (in the
Saltillo Affair) during the competition. Players refused to train between their first and the second games (against
England and
Poland) and were eliminated after a loss to
Morocco in the final group match.
External links
★
1986 FIFA World Cup from FIFA.com
★
Details at RSSSF
★
History of the World Cup-1986
★
Planet World Cup - Mexico 1986
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