FIFA World Cup 1978 Group 3
Austria, making their first appearance in the finals for 20 years, had two world class players in their side, Herbert Prohaska and Hans Krankl and managed to finish ahead of Brazil.
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Austria
Spain
Austria 2 Spain 1
Estadio José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires (40,841)
3 June 1978
Ten minutes into the game, a Spanish attack on the left broke down: the ball was cleared to Schachner who ran with it from the half-way line, beat the Spanish left-back and hammered it past Angel. Dani equalised in the 21st minute. Soon afterwards Spain had the ball in the net again but it was disallowed for a foul on the Austrian goalkeeper. Both sides had good chances in the second half but Hans Krankl scored the winner after the ball broke to him off a Spanish defender eleven minutes from full-time.
Brazil
Sweden
Brazil 1 Sweden 1
Estadio José María Minella, Mar del Plata (32,569)
3 June 1978
Thomas Sjöberg put Sweden ahead in the 37th minute but his goal was cancelled out by Reinaldo just before half-time. There was no scoring in the second half but in injury time, Zico headed a corner into the Swedish net. The rules dictated that in these circumstances time would be allowed to take the corner and the convention was to allow the resulting play to resolve before full-time was called but the Welsh referee, Clive Thomas, no stranger to controversy and a man rather too fond of the spotlight, blew for time while the ball was in flight and disallowed the goal. The Brazilians were quite cross.
Austria
Sweden
Austria 1 Sweden 0
Estadio José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires (41,424)
7 June 1978
Austria took two points thanks to a penalty scored by Hans Krankl three minutes before the end of the first half.
Brazil
Spain
Brazil 0 Spain 0
Estadio José María Minella, Mar del Plata (34,771)
7 June 1978
Heavy rain caused the pitch to cut up very badly, not ideal conditions for two skilful sides. Brazil had most of the attacking play but both teams squandered decent chances. Spain were let off after the ball bounced back into their goalkeeper's arms off the bar while Brazil almost conceded but scrambled the ball off the line twice in one incident.
Spain
Sweden
Spain 1 Sweden 0
Estadio José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires (46,765)
11 June 1978
On paper both team had an outside chance of qualifying for the next round provided Austria could beat Brazil. They couldn't so they didn't.
Brazil
Austria
Brazil 1 Austria 0
Estadio José María Minella, Mar del Plata (35,221)
11 June 1978
Brazil's goal was scored by the rather wonderfully named Roberto Dinamite in the 40th minute.