2006 FIFA World Cup

"2006 World Cup" redirects here. For other competitions of that name, see 2006 World Cup (disambiguation).

"FIFA 2006" redirects here. For the video game, see FIFA 06.

This article is about the 2006 FIFA World Cup. For the video game, see 2006 FIFA World Cup (video game).

2006 FIFA World Cup
FIFA Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft Deutschland 2006
2006 FIFA World Cup official logo A time to make friends
Tournament details
Host country	Germany
Dates	9 June – 9 July (31 days)
Teams	32 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	12 (in 12 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Italy (4th title)
Runners-up	France
Third place	Germany
Fourth place	Portugal
Tournament statistics
Matches played	64
Goals scored	147 (2.3 per match)
Attendance	3,359,439 (52,491 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Miroslav Klose (5 goals)
Best player	Zinedine Zidane
Best young player	Lukas Podolski
Best goalkeeper	Gianluigi Buffon

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany, for the finals tournament.

Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title. They defeated France 5–3 in a penalty shootout in the final, afterextra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish in third place. Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro, Trinidad & Tobago and Togo made their first appearances in the finals.

The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people. The 2006 World Cup ranks fourth in non-unique viewers, behind the World Cup in 1994, 2002, and 1990. As the winner, Italy represented the World in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Knockout stage

Main article: 2006 FIFA World Cup knockout stage

The knockout stage involved the sixteen teams that qualified from the group stage of the tournament. There were four rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were: round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final. There was also a play-off to decide third/fourth place. For each game in the knockout stage, a draw was followed by thirty minutes of extra time (two 15-minute halves); if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out (at least five penalties each, and more if necessary) to determine who progressed to the next round. Scores after extra time are indicated by (aet), and penalty shoot-outs are indicated by (pen.).

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

24 June – Munich

Germany

30 June – Berlin

Sweden

Germany (pen.)

1 (4)

24 June – Leipzig

Argentina

1 (2)

Argentina (aet)

4 July – Dortmund

Mexico

Germany

26 June – Kaiserslautern

Italy (aet)

Italy

30 June – Hamburg

Australia

Italy

26 June – Cologne

Ukraine

Switzerland

0 (0)

9 July – Berlin

Ukraine (pen.)

0 (3)

Italy (pen.)

1 (5)

25 June – Stuttgart

France

1 (3)

England

1 July – Gelsenkirchen

Ecuador

England

0 (1)

25 June – Nuremberg

Portugal (pen.)

0 (3)

Portugal

5 July – Munich

Netherlands

Portugal

27 June – Dortmund

France

Third Place

Brazil

1 July – Frankfurt

8 July – Stuttgart

Ghana

Brazil

Germany

27 June – Hanover

France

Portugal

Spain

France

Round of 16

In the second round, conceding two early goals in the first twelve minutes to Germany effectively ended the Swedes' hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals. Argentina struggled to get past Mexico until a Maxi Rodríguez goal in extra time put the Albiceleste in the quarter-finals. Australia's journey ended when Italians were awarded a controversial penalty, scored by Francesco Totti, deep into the remaining seconds of the match. The Italians had spent much of the game with only ten men on the field, following an equally controversial red card shown to centre back Marco Materazzi. In a 0–0 match, Switzerland failed to convert any of their three penalties in the penalty shoot-out against Ukraine to see them exit the competition with an unwanted new record in becoming the first team in a World Cup to fail to convert any penalties in a shootout. Their elimination also meant that they became the first nation to be eliminated from the World Cup without conceding any goals (and indeed the only nation ever to participate in a World Cup finals tournament without conceding a goal).

England struggled past Ecuador but won 1–0 thanks to a David Beckham free kick. Brazil won 3–0 against Ghana, in a game which included Ronaldo's record 15th World Cup goal. Der Spiegel reported that the match was influenced by an Asian betting syndicate. Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1–0. The only goal came courtesy of a Manichestrike in an acrimonious match, which marked a new World Cup record with 16 yellow cards (Portugal: 9, the Netherlands: 7) and 4 players being sent off for a second bookable offence. France came from behind to defeat Spain 3–1 thanks to goals from Franck Ribéry, Patrick Vieira, and Zinedine Zidane.