Who is the king of World Cup comebacks?
It depends on what you call a comeback. Define yours and see who rules.
The throne is shared: Italy and 3 others.
Italy has 2 comebacks in the 4 times it was going out (50%), and was overturned once. In all there are 13 comebacks in 170 chances: it happens 7.6% of the time.
The 9 teams with the most comebacks.
| # | Team | Came back | Going out | Rate | Suffered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy | 2 | 4 | 50% | 1 |
| 2 | Argentina | 2 | 6 | 33.3% | 1 |
| 3 | Belgium | 2 | 9 | 22.2% | 0 |
| 4 | Germany | 2 | 10 | 20% | 0 |
| 5 | Morocco | 1 | 3 | 33.3% | 0 |
| 6 | South Korea | 1 | 3 | 33.3% | 0 |
| 7 | England | 1 | 7 | 14.3% | 2 |
| 8 | Uruguay | 1 | 8 | 12.5% | 0 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 1 | 9 | 11.1% | 1 |
Tap a team to see its comebacks.
How it is counted
World Cup knockout ties are single matches: a team was going out if it was losing the match at that moment. If it was level, nobody was going out. Going through includes winning in extra time or on penalties.
Every knockout match since 1930 is included, finals too. The group stage and the third-place match are not. In 1934 and 1938 a draw was replayed: the replay is the one that counts.
The Maracanazo counts as a final. In 1950 there was no final but a group of four, and its last match, Uruguay v Brazil, decided the title with a draw favouring Brazil: Uruguay was going out unless it was winning.
Teams that no longer exist follow FIFA’s criterion: West Germany counts as Germany, the USSR as Russia, Yugoslavia as Serbia and Czechoslovakia as the Czech Republic.
The cut at 90 comes before stoppage time and the one at 105 is half-time of extra time. “Exactly at that minute” looks at that instant only; “at that minute or later” also counts a team that fell behind later and turned it around. The rate is comebacks divided by the times the team was going out.