ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

The German national football team took third place at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. The semi-final against Italy is regarded by many as a game of the century.

Qualification
Germany met Scotland, Austria and Cyprus in qualifying. After difficult wins against Austria and 1-0 on Cyprus, Scotland was the main competitor with forward star Denis Law. On 16 April 1969, the German team played in Glasgow and fought a 1:1. Gerd Müller took the Germans in the lead in the first half, Murdoch made up in the 85th minute. The decision had to be made in the second leg in Hamburg.

On the rainy 22. In October 1969, the Scots took the lead after three minutes by Johnstone. Klaus Fichtel of FC Schalke 04 made up before halftime. After Gerd Müller had secured the lead for the German team in halftime, the Scots still did not beat themselves and fought for the compensation by Gilzean. Stan Libuda then brought the decision in the 79th minute; Germany qualified for the World Cup in Mexico.

Gerd Müller scored nine of the 20 German goals in qualifying. In all six group games, the player of FC Bayern Munich scored at least one goal. Most of the players of the German national team played at FC Bayern at the time. Four players had 17 vocations in the qualifying games. This was followed by the 1st FC Cologne, Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen and Borussia Mönchengladbach with eight secondments each.

Order

As a team doctor, Professor Hanns Schoberth supervised the German squad.

German Games

Preliminary

Germany resigned on 3. June as vice world champion against the World Cup newcomer Morocco and fell behind after 21 minutes. After a mistake of the Bremen Horst-Dieter Höttges, Jarir shot in. In the 56th minute, Uwe Seeler overcame the strong goalkeeper Allal Ben Kassou with a flat shot. In the 80th minute Gerd Müller headed the ball to the victory goal.

Germany returned to León; Bundestrainer Schön replaced Helmut Haller with Libuda and Held with Löhr. The team had to make up a backlog again: through a free-kick goal of Asparuch Nikodimov in the 11th minute Bulgaria had gone into the lead. Libuda, who made a very good game, made up eight minutes later. Müller and Seeler led Germany 5-1. Shortly before the end of the game, the Bulgarian Bojl Kolev managed a hit.

In the third group match, which took place again in León, it was against Peru for the group victory. Peru had defeated Bulgaria 3-2 and Morocco 3-0. The winner would be group winner and should also play in the quarterfinals in León, in a draw would have been drawn. Germany had the same starting line-up as against Bulgaria and went concentrated from the beginning. Gerd Müller then decided the game with three goals within 19 minutes of flanks of Libuda, L