1974 FIFA World Cup Final

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1974 FIFA World Cup Final

Event	1974 FIFA World Cup
Netherlands West Germany 1 2
Date	7 July 1974
Venue	Olympiastadion, Munich
Man of the Match	Gerd Müller
Referee	Jack Taylor (England)
Attendance	75,200
← 1970 1978 →

The 1974 FIFA World Cup Final was the final match of the 1974 FIFA World Cup, the 10th FIFA World Cup, a competition to determine the world champion among national men's football sides. The match was contested by the Netherlands and West Germany, with the West Germans winning 2–1. The Netherlands opened the scoring via a Johan Neeskens penalty in the second minute, only for Paul Breitner to equalise with another penalty in the 25th minute before Gerd Müller scored the winning goal in the 43rd minute, claiming West Germany's second FIFA World Cup.

Match summary

West Germany was led by Franz Beckenbauer, while the Dutch had their star Johan Cruijff, and their Total Football system which had dazzled the competition. With just a minute gone on the clock, following a solo run, Cruijff was brought down by Uli Hoeneß in the German penalty area, and the Dutch took the lead from the ensuing penalty by Johan Neeskens before any German player had even touched the ball. West Germany struggled to recover, but they were awarded a penalty of their own in the 25th minute after Bernd Hölzenbein was fouled within the Dutch area. Paul Breitner took responsibility for the kick, and scored. These two penalties were the first to be awarded in a World Cup Final. West Germany now pushed for a winner, which eventually came in the 43rd minute through Gerd Müller. It turned out to be Müller's last ever goal for the West German team, as he retired from international football after the tournament. As the teams walked off the pitch at half-time, Cruijff was booked for arguing with the referee.

The second half saw chances for both sides. Müller thought he had scored when he put the ball in the net, only to be denied by the linesman flagging for offside. In the 85th minute, Hölzenbein fell to ground in the Dutch penalty area again, but referee Taylor did not believe it was a foul. When the final whistle went, West Germany were crowned world champions for 1974, in addition to their European title from 1972. This was the only case of the reigning European champions winning the World Cup until Spain accomplished the feat in 2010, although France have also held both trophies at the same time by winning the 1998 World Cup followed by Euro 2000.

João Havelange (former FIFA President from 1974 to 1998) has claimed that the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were fixed so that England and Germany would win respectively.^[1]

Match details

7 July 1974 16:00 (CET)	Netherlands	1–2	West Germany	Olympiastadion, Munich Attendance: 75,200 Referee: Jack Taylor (England)
	Neeskens  2' (pen.)	Report	Breitner  25' (pen.) Müller  43'

Netherlands

West Germany

GK 8 Jan Jongbloed RB 20 Wim Suurbier CB 17 Wim Rijsbergen 69' CB 2 Arie Haan LB 12 Ruud Krol RM 6 Wim Jansen CM 13 Johan Neeskens 40' LM 3 Willem van Hanegem 23' RF 16 Johnny Rep CF 14 Johan Cruijff (c) 45' LF 15 Rob Rensenbrink 46' Substitutions: FW 10 René van de Kerkhof 46' MF 7 Theo de Jong 69' Manager: Rinus Michels

GK 1 Sepp Maier RB 2 Berti Vogts 4' CB 5 Franz Beckenbauer (c) CB 4 Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck LB 3 Paul Breitner RM 16 Rainer Bonhof CM 14 Uli Hoeneß LM 12 Wolfgang Overath RF 9 Jürgen Grabowski CF 13 Gerd Müller LF 17 Bernd Hölzenbein Manager: Helmut Schön

See also

• Germany–Netherlands football rivalry

References