MOMENTS
Goals, saves, controversies, and tears. The flashes of football the tournament is remembered for.
Phase 4 will add curated images, match links, and (where licensing permits) embedded video.
- 1950
The Maracanazo
Uruguay silence the Maracanã. Brazil expected coronation; Ghiggia wrote the most painful 79th-minute goal in football history.
- 1966
The Wembley goal
Hurst’s shot off the bar. In or out? England 4–2 West Germany after extra time. Fifty-eight years later, still arguing.
- 1970
Banks from Pelé
A header destined for the net, scooped up impossibly. The save of the century, replayed every June.
- 1974
Total Football
Cruyff’s turn against Sweden. The Netherlands’ rotating geometry redrew what a team could be — even if Germany lifted the cup.
- 1986
Hand of God / Goal of the Century
Maradona twice in four minutes. The fist, and then the slalom past five Englishmen. Mexico City has never been louder.
- 1990
Gazza’s tears
A yellow card, a banned final, a nation hooked. The summer English football came back.
- 1998
Zidane in Paris
Two headers in the final on home soil. France 3 – Brazil 0. Les Bleus claim the trophy at last.
- 2002
The shock in Seoul
South Korea’s run to the semis. Italy, Spain, the controversy, the noise — a tournament that rewrote the map.
- 2006
The headbutt
Materazzi. Zidane. The chest. Berlin. The last touch of a generational career.
- 2014
7–1
Belo Horizonte. Germany destroy Brazil at home. Six goals in 29 minutes. The hosts in tears, the world in shock.
- 2018
Mbappé arrives
A 19-year-old running through Argentina in Kazan. The torch passed mid-match. France lift the trophy in Moscow.
- 2022
Messi finally
Lusail. Penalties. Argentina 3(4) – France 3(2). The greatest player of the era gets the only thing he was missing.