Winning a World Cup is undoubtedly difficult. Doing it in two consecutive editions is even more complicated. So much so that only two teams in history achieved it. Beyond this, it is disappointing to see how the team that lifted the Cup last year leaves in the first round. Here we tell you how many times it happened. And to prepare for the Qatar preview, try the simulator.
Actually, this curse seems to be typical of the 21st century. Almost all the champions who had to defend their title in this century have failed miserably. But of course, that doesn’t mean the last century didn’t happen. An example that is often mentioned, although we must discard it from this list, is that of Uruguay.
It is that the Uruguayans had to defend their title in the 1934 Italy World Cup, but they were not left out in the first round: they did not even participate in this edition. What happened? Uruguay was upset because Italy had refused to participate in the edition held, and as a protest for that, decided not to play the World Cup on Italian soil.
The curse in the 20th century
In addition to the particular situation that occurred with Uruguay, which cannot really be considered as a first-round elimination since the Uruguayans actually refused to participate, there were two occasions in which this happened.
The first was in the 1966 England World Cup. Brazil had just won two World Cups in a row, however they finished third in their group behind Portugal and Hungary. The same thing happened to Italy, who had just won the 1934 and 1938 World Cups. After the interruption due to World War II, they were left out in the first round of the 1950 World Cup.
21st century, the beginning of the curse
Over the past century, as we have seen, there have been few occasions on which this has occurred. usually, the champion advanced to the next round. And although Brazil was surprising considering its great team, it should also be noted that between the World Cup that Italy won in 1938 and the one that was left out in 1950, 12years passed, where the war also paralyzed soccer in the country.
However, in this new century, this happened so many times that we could already begin to think of some kind of curse. France were eliminated in the first round at Korea-Japan 2022, after winning France 1998; Italy, in South Africa 2010 after winning Germany 2006; Spain in Brazil 2014, after winning South Africa 2010, and finally Germany, in Russia 2018, eliminated after winning Brazil 2014.
The only team in the new century that managed to escape the curse was Brazil, champions in Korea-Japan 2002, but in Germany 2006 they reached the quarterfinals. This year in Qatar it is France‘s turn to defend the title, will they manage to break the curse?
