Who Would Have Bet On That? Trivia Quiz

Answer: It was an own goal

Marcelo's goal was the first time the first goal in a FIFA World Cup opening match was an own goal. Croatia forward Nikica Jelavić had fluffed his strike on a cross from Ivica Olić, the ball hit Marcelo, and went in. The Croatian supporters went wild, as did a lot of neutrals watching the match on TV around the world. Neymar equalized for Brazil in the 29th minute with a cracking shot, and then a very soft penalty was given when Fred went to ground in the 71st minute. Oscar scored Brazil's third in injury time.

Answer: Iran v Nigeria

The Iran v Nigeria game was the second in Group F. Although it was hardly a thriller for the neutrals, it was quite an achievement for Iran since they managed to keep a clean sheet. In previous FIFA World Cups, Iran had only ever won one match, which was against the USA at the group stage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. They won that one 2-1.

In 2014, Group A opened with Brazil beating Croatia 3-1. Spain started badly losing 1-5 to the Netherlands in Group B, while Colombia got off to an amazing start thrashing Greece 3-0 in Group C, as did Costa Rica in Group D when they beat Uruguay 3-1. Group E kicked off with Switzerland just beating Ecuador 2-1, just as Argentina did against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Group F. Germany started emphatically when they thrashed Portugal 4-0 in Group G, while Belgium hardly got out of first gear but managed to beat Algeria 2-1 in Group H.

In comparison, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa had just twelve goals from the opening games at the group stage, and Group G started with a 0-0 draw between Ivory Coast and Portugal.

Answer: Uruguay scored

Notorious nibbler Luis Suárez lost the plot and sunk his teeth into incredulous Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder while they were tussling in the area. Chiellini and his fellow teammates were so busy complaining to the nonplussed referee that they hardly noticed when Uruguay defender Diego Godín won a corner. This corner led to the goal, scored by the very same Diego Godín.
According to some newspaper reports, a significant number of people around the globe had actually put money on Suárez biting someone during the 2014 World Cup.

Italy midfielder Claudio Marchisio had already been sent off in the 59th minute for a reckless studs-up challenge. Uruguayan midfielder Álvaro Pereira had been substituted by striker Christian Stuani, and Italian striker Mario Balotelli had been substituted by Marco Parolo.

Answer: All six FIFA confederations were represented at the Round of 16

UEFA (Europe) was represented by the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Greece, and Switzerland. CONMEBOL (South America) had the hosts Brazil, plus Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) was represented by Costa Rica, the United States, and Mexico. CAF (Africa) had Nigeria and Algeria.

No teams from AFC (Asia) got through the group stages in which there had been four Asian teams: South Korea, Iran, Japan and Australia. There were no teams from (Oceania) at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Goal-line technology was used for the first time at a FIFA World Cup during the France vs Honduras group stage match. When Germany's Miroslav Klose scored against Brazil in the FIFA 2014 World Cup semi-finals, he became the number one World Cup goal-scorer of all-time. Every team scored at least one goal. The award for "fewest goals scored by a team" was shared by Cameroon, Honduras, and Iran who all bagged just one goal each.

Answer: 2

The 2014 FIFA World Cup saw France come top of group E. They beat Honduras 3-0, and Switzerland 5-2 in the first two games, then slacked off against Ecuador (0-0). In the knockout stage, they beat Nigeria 2-0, but seemed to have run out of petrol by the time they met Germany in the quarter-finals. Having said that, they only lost 1-0, so no humiliation was suffered.

Karim Benzema was France's top-scorer with three goals, whilst Olivier Giroud, Blaise Matuidi, Paul Pogba, Moussa Sissoko, and Mathieu Valbuena all got one each. The remaining two goals were own goals. Les Bleus had to show they had turned up for this World Cup after such a disappointing campaign in 2010 which saw them come bottom of their group with only one netted goal.

Answer: He was unattached

Who would have guessed that the Mexico goalie would have become one of the stars of the 2014 FIFA World Cup? Well, maybe he did. Guillermo Ochoa was playing for French Ligue 1 side Ajaccio until they were relegated at the end of the 2014 season. Ochoa left the club. It has been suggested that he purposefully didn't sign with another club prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup because he was confident he could impress on a world stage.

Impress he did, and he was approached by all and sundry, so maybe his gamble paid off. His performance during the first-round Mexico v Brazil game was dumbfounding, and earned him Man of the Match. He got the award a second time for his performance against the Netherlands in the knockout phase. Mexico lost 2-1, but Dutch striker Arjen Robben had to take a dive in order to get the penalty for the winning goal.

Goalkeepers had a good World Cup. Tim Howard was arguably the USA's best player. He was particularly impressive against Belgium in the knockout stage when he made sixteen saves, more than ever recorded in a World Cup match.

Answer: Colombia

Colombia came 5th, Costa Rica 8th. Spain were 23rd, and England 26th. Poor old Cameroon came last (32nd).

Both Colombia and Costa Rica were eliminated in the quarter-finals, which is further than either team had ever been before. In fact Colombia hadn't qualified since the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, and Costa Rica had only ever qualified three times since entering in 1958. Part of Colombia's success was down to James Rodríguez who netted six goals.

Colombia were knocked out by Brazil in one of the dirtiest games of the tournament. Costa Rica were seen as the underdogs of Group D but actually topped the group. The other teams were all World Cup winners: Italy four times, Uruguay twice, and England once.

Answer: Xherdan Shaqiri

Shaqiri scored three goals in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, all in the same game which was against Honduras in the group stage. He got the Man of the Match award twice, once for that very game, and once for his performance against Ecuador.

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, holder of FIFA Ballon d'Or at the time, scored in a win against Ghana. Bosnian Edin Dzeko scored one for Bosnia and Herzegovina in a win against Iran. Wayne Rooney got one against Uruguay, but England still lost.

Answer: Tim Krul

Van Gaal got it right and Newcastle United's Tim Krul saved two of the Costa Rican penalties (by Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umańa), which meant the Netherlands went on to the semi-finals. Had it gone differently, the pundits shouting "Van Gaal's a genius" would have been singing a different tune. However, in the semi-finals against Argentina Van Gaal didn't have the chance to substitute Jasper Cillessen and the Netherlands were knocked out on penalties, so what do I know?
Michel Vorm, Maarten Stekelenburg and Edwin van der Sar have all played between the posts for the Netherlands.

Answer: Oscar

It seems to me that a consolation goal after such a humiliating demolition makes it all the more ridiculous. Germany's keeper Manuel Neuer wouldn't agree with me though; he was fuming when Oscar managed to slot one in just before the referee whistled to put the host nation out of its misery.

Thomas Müller opened the scoring in the 11th minute, but the Brazilians were still in it until Miroslav Klose scored in the 23rd minute, opening the floodgates for Toni Kroos in the 24th minute and the 26th minute, followed by Sami Khedira in the 29th. Even Brazil's biggest rivals must have felt for them as they slouched off looking shell-shocked at half-time. Things "calmed down" until André Schürrle came on in the 58th minute. He scored in the 69th and 79th.