This incident was so shocking that it led to FIFA changing the format of the World Cup finals. West Germany were surprisingly beaten 2-1 by African nation Algeria and needed a result to qualify through the first group stage. The World Cup schedule, though, meant that Algeria played their final group match 24 hours before Germany were due to take on Austria. Therefore the two nations knew that a 1-0 win for the West Germans would send both nations through at the expense of poor Algeria. And guess what happened? Of course it did. Germany won 1-0 thanks to a tenth minute goal from Horst Hrubesch and, other than that, goal-mouth action came at a premium. FIFA then decided that final group game matches should be played simultaneously a rule that is still in place now.
