The Biggest World Cup Wins in History

In this article, we listed the six biggest wins, or defeats, in World Cup history. The footballing world didn’t see numbers this high that often. But, who knows, we might see a new record in Qatar in a few weeks.

The biggest wins and defeats tend to happen in the group stage of the tournament as the competition can often be lopsided. Five of the six biggest World Cup wins in history were made in the past century. The most recent similar victory was Germany’s 7-1 triumph over Brazil in 2014 but even those numbers are small compared to the ones on this list.

Depending on how you look at it, these are both the biggest World Cup wins and defeats in history. If you think your team could be on the receiving end of a similar defeat, check out our World Cup betting guide for more insight.

Hungary Own not One, but Two of the Biggest World Cup Wins in History

The record for the biggest winning margin in the World Cup is 9 goals. This only happened three times with Hungary handing out two of these embarrassing beatings. The biggest World Cup win in history is Hungary’s 10-1 game against El Salvador at the 1982 tournament. Several records were set in this game, including the only double-digit World Cup win and the fastest-ever hat-trick in a World Cup match.

The second or joint-second most impressive World Cup win in history belongs to Hungary’s 1954 team. South Korea lost 9-0 to the Golden Team. Hungary set up multiple records at this tournament while diminishing every opponent they faced, up until the final. The Miracle of Bern was unfortunate but the Hungarians set multiple records for a single World Cup, namely most goals scored, largest overall goal difference, goals scored per game, and the highest average winning margin.

Yugoslavia Beat Zaire so Bad the Country Reformed Itself

Yugoslavia was a powerhouse on the sports scene for multiple decades. Their 9-0 victory over Zaire at the 1974 World Cup is proof of this. After drawing against reigning champions Brazil and Scotland, the Yugoslavians went on to demolish Zaire.

Known as DR Congo since 1997, the 1974 tournament remains the African nation’s only World Cup appearance. This 9-0 beating is still the joint-biggest World Cup win in history.

Three 8-Goal Victories Across 8 Decades

The next biggest wins in World Cup history take a joint-second position, as all three matches ended with an 8-goal difference. First, it was Sweden who entered the history books with their 8-0 victory over Cuba in 1938. The Swedish might’ve beaten the hope out of the Cubans as they haven’t qualified for another World Cup ever since.

Uruguay joined Sweden after beating Bolivia 8-0 in 1950, the joint-biggest World Cup win at the time. Scotland and Turkey both withdrew from the competition so the only group-stage match was this disaster from Bolivia’s point of view. The victory was all the sweeter this year as the Uruguayans went on to win their 2nd World Cup.

The third and so far the last time the world has seen an 8-0 the beating was in 2002. Germany, three-time champions at the time beat Saudi Arabia 8-0. They finished the group stage with the highest goal difference but eventually lost to Brazil in the final. The Germans are known to abolish their World Cup opponents from time to time so it might be a good idea to look at their odds on 888sport before the group-stage matches.

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