Pr0t0c0L said:
Group Two saw the return of the West Germany of 1954. In one of the most disgraceful matches ever played at a World Cup West Germany qualified at the expense of Algeria. What had happened was that earlier Algeria players had played one of the games of their lives, defeating the European champions by two goals to one in their first game of this World Cup. The Algerians had hung on in the first half, then thirteen minutes into the second Lakhdar Belloumi stormed into the German penalty area and shot, the ball thudded into a defender’s legs and bounced off into the path of the onrushing Madjer, who promptly scored. West Germany were shaken, and started to put in some very aggressive tackles of dubious legality, nine minutes later Rummenigge equalised for Germany, but it left a sour taste as Fergani and Cerbah of Algeria had earlier had to be treated for injuries. But within a minute justice was done; Assad, on the left hand side of the half way line, was half tackled but managed to retain possession, he then slipped the ball to Zidane, and then hurtled forward, Zidane soon returned the ball to Assad who by now was in the German penalty area, quick as a flash Assad volleyed the ball into the path of Belloumi, past Breitner in defence, for Belloumi was rushing onwards to the West German goal. Belloumi side-footed the ball into the net. The West Germans desperately lashed out but were unable to retrieve the situation. It looked as if Algeria could qualify at the expense of the former champions, but it was not to be. Fifa had, unfortunately, not learnt the lesson of fours years previously, and they permitted interlined matches to kick-off at different times. By the time West Germany had to play Austria they knew that they had to win one-nil, moreover, such a result would enable the Austrians to go through too. Sure enough West Germany scored early against Austria and then? well nothing, neither side made even a token effort to score again, simply kicking the ball about in an entirely aimless way. It was an appalling, but supposedly perfectly legal, way to behave. Even if there had been any hope of restitution, Fifa saw to it that nothing would come of it by ignoring the Algerian protests. It could hardly have been more obvious that such a display brought the game into disrepute.
http://www.worldcupyears.com/years/1982overview.shtml
