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West Germany 3-2 Hungary
Switzerland 1954 | Final
Wankdorf Stadium, Bern
Attendance: 62,500
Goals: Puskas (6), Czibor (8), Morlock (10), Rahn (18), Rahn (84)

Teams
West Germany
Toni Turek; Jupp Posipal, Werner Liebrich, Werner Kohlmeyer; Horst Eckel, Karl Mai; Helmut Rahn, Max Morlock, Ottmar Walter, Fritz Walter, Hans Schafer.
Coach: Sepp Herberger

Hungary
Gyula Grosics, Jeno Buzanszky, Gyula Lorant, Mihaly Lantos; Jozsef Bozsik, Jozsef Zakarias; Zoltan Czbior, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Hidegkuti, Ferenc Puskas, Mihaly Toth.
Coach: Gusztav Sebes

Going into the game
Hungary remain the most emphatic final favourites in World Cup history. They had, seven months earlier, become the first overseas team to beat England at Wembley. They followed that 6-3 beatdown up with a 7-1 crushing of the same side less than a month before Switzerland 1954 began. The Magical Magyars then averaged scoring 6.25 goals per game to waltz into the Wankdorf decider. Furthermore, they had Puskas, the best player on the planet, back from injury.

Frighteningly, West Germany knew their 8-3 thrashing by Hungary in the group stage flattered them. ‘Only’ losing by five goals had been indebted to Puskas limping off at the start of the second half in an era in which substitutions didn’t exist. If that dampened any hope of a giant-slaying, the conditions restored some. It was chucking it down in Bern, which was something referred to back home as ‘Fritz Walter weather’, and the West German players had innovative screw-in studs to deal with the rain.

Hitherto head-to-head record
۸ Hungary wins
۶ draws
۵ West Germany wins

The game
Herberger stressed it was “essential we don’t get off to a bad start like we did in the group”, but West Germany got off to a worse one, with Puskas and Czibor establishing a two-goal advantage inside eight minutes. If the biggest victory in a World Cup final had been predicted pre-match, it had been all but printed. Not for long. A predatory Morlock goal halved the deficit, before a Rahn header had the underdogs promptly back at parity.

It initiated an incessant assault on the West Germany goal. Hidegkuti rattled the post, Kocsis headed against the crossbar, Kohlmeyer made two desperate goal-line clearances, and Turek made two exceptional saves. Then, with six minutes remaining, Hungary were hit with a sucker punch. Rahm’s pass-fake left multiple adversaries wrong-footed, and his fierce finish made the bottom corner. Puskas thought he’d equalised following a Kocsis flick-on, but it was ruled out for offside. The final whistle swiftly sounded to signal one of the most seismic shocks in football history.

Quotes
“There’s never been another team like us. We didn’t just beat teams, but beat really strong teams with ease. The statistics don’t lie. We lost just once in 50 games. Unfortunately it was in the biggest game of our lives. It’s a tragedy.”
Zoltan Czibor

“There was disbelief when we got into the dressing room. The mood was sombre. We were thinking, ‘Have we really just become world champions?’ Then Herberger snapped us to our senses. ‘We’ve beaten Hungary, we’re world champions, let’s sing!’ We sung and sung, getting louder and louder. We were in a dream.”
Horst Eckel

“Suddenly Germany was somebody again. For anybody who grew up in the misery of the post-war years, Bern was an extraordinary inspiration. The entire country regained its self-esteem.”
Franz Beckenbauer

“I felt – and still feel – an enormous sense of loss, that something went out of my life that has never been restored. It’s more than 40 years ago now, but if someone was to wake me up tomorrow morning and remind me of that match, I’d burst into tears.”
Gyula Grosics