10 Biggest World Cup Upsets Of All Time
7. Northern Ireland 1 - 0 Spain (1982)
World Cup '82 saw the Spaniards go in on home turf, and despite being nowhere near as acclaimed as the team have been in recent years, tipped with an outside shot of winning the tournament. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland hadn't qualified for the finals since 1958 and had won neither of their opening two group games.
The Northern Ireland team featured the youngest player in World Cup history, with Norman Whiteside just 17 years old, and two competitive games into his Manchester United career when he first took to the field in the tournament. The team facing Spain was captained by current Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill and featured legendary goalkeeper Pat Jennings.
Despite been written off by most pundits going into the match, Gerry Armstrong took the lead for his side just after halftime. The Northern Irish defence held on valiantly but when Mal Donaghy was sent off at the hour mark most assumed the team would fail to hold on.
But they did.
Securing a famous victory, Northern Ireland would actually top their group before going out in the next group stage.