Out - but no goals against

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Switzerland are the first team to depart from a FIFA World Cup™ having not conceded a single goal.

 

In their three group games Switzerland established a 'thou shall not pass' credo which they took into their Round of 16 game with Ukraine which went 120 minutes without a goal. Ukraine then prevailed 3-0 in the penalty shoot-out.

 

Previously, seven teams have exited the FIFA World Cup having conceded just one goal. The full list is:

Scotland in 1974, 1 goal conceded in 3 games (1 win, 2 draws)

Cameroon 1982, 1 in 3 (3 draws)

England 1982, 1 in 5 (3 wins, 2 draws)

Brazil 1986, 1 in 5 (4 wins, 1 draw)

Italy 1990, 1 in 6 (5 wins, 1 draw – at the moment of elimination in the semi-final. They did concede again in the match for third place)

Norway 1994, 1 in 3 (1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss)

 

Switzerland’s record in Germany was amazing because previously they were known as the team guaranteed to let goals in. In their 22 FIFA World Cup ties before 2006 they conceded goals in each game – a total of 51.

 

The Switzerland-Ukraine game threw up other interesting facts. It was only the third time that a team had advanced to the quarter-finals after losing a group match by a margin of four goals or more. Before Ukraine (defeated 4-0 by Spain in their opening match), West Germany had lost 8-3 to Hungary in 1954 and Cameroon lost 4-0 to the Soviet Union in 1990.

 

The 3-0 score in the penalty shoot-out was the lowest-scoring tiebreaker in FIFA World Cup history. Switzerland became the first team not to convert any of their penalties. It was also the first time Switzerland had been involved in extra time in the FIFA World Cup since 1938 (when they tied 1-1 with Germany).

 

Ukraine goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskyi is one of only eight goalkeepers to have saved two penalties in shoot-outs. Germany’s Harald Schumacher and Argentina’s Sergio Goycoechea managed it on two occasions.