What is your nations worst defeat?

patty123

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According to some stats company Gracenote these are Scotland's worst ever



Mostly bollocks though. Poland were building their great 70s team in '65, Peru were class through most of the 70s, Belgium reached the Euro 80 final a year later, Ireland had an excellent Euro 88 a year alter.

I'll go for Wales pumping us 4-0 in 2004 with a fairly average side.
3 matches, 1 win, when Ireland/England B beat England A, a draw against a fading Russia and a loss to eventual winners Holland, not that "excellent" pal and if Utd fans thought footie under lvg, jose was boring you haven't watched Charltons mixture in action..
 

flappyjay

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We got beat 6-1 by Guinea in the 2012 Afcon. We have had thrashings before but this 1 hurt because it was our 1st major tournament and the team had been decent for about 4 years. Needless to say we went back into being dross again, not that it's connected.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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This one.

Ronaldo and Zlatan in their absolute prime, both trying to drag their team to the tournament. Was cruel that one of them had to miss out.
Yeah had some bad luck with the draw too. First Germany in the group and then Portugal in playoff.
 

Mike Smalling

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Not the biggest losing margin, but Denmark losing to Sweden in the 2008 Euro qualifiers was hard to stomach. Denmark started out going down 3-0 at home within half an hour, before bringing it back to 3-3 with 15 minutes left to play. Cue Christian Poulsen to sucker punch one of the Swedes in the stomach and giving away a penalty, which prompted a drunk fan to attack the ref. Match was abandoned, Sweden awarded a 3-0 victory and Denmark ended up not qualifying.

 

MemphisThePie

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2-3 vs Portugal and a Ronaldo hattrick. Missed the world cup due to that in 2014.
Can't remember being smashed in a big game as long as I have followed Sweden.
Have a few other annoying defeats like vs Russia in the Euro 2008 and Ukraine in Euro 2012.
I would say the loss on penalties vs Netherlands Euro 2004. We were the better team that game. Could very well have gone all the way that tournament if Zlatan didn’t poop his pants.
 

Abizzz

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Losing to Croatia 1998 was worse than the defeat in WW2? Interesting take.
Well yeah if defeat in WW2 hadn't taken place I most likely wouldn't be around and Germany would be off a lot worse in whatever that system would have evolved into. For me the Nazi Germans loosing was a win for the Germans of today (I'm not solely German though either so that might make a difference. I'm a proud citizen of nowhere).

Let's keep it to the football though. I won't answer anyone quoting this.
 

mazhar13

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Canada had a decent chance at entering the Hex stage in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualification. We cruised through the 2nd round and entered the 3rd round in a group with Honduras, Panama, and Cuba. Whilst Honduras were a decent side back then, Panama and Cuba weren't, so Canadian fans felt pretty good about getting into the Hex. Back then, we had a decent team with de Rosario, Julian de Guzman, Atiba Hutchinson, David Edgar, and Simeon Jackson headlining the team. We started off quite well with 7 points in the first 3 matches, topping our group. A loss to Panama made us a little nervous, but a convincing 3-0 win against Cuba at home made it so that qualification was in our control.

All we needed to do was to not lose against Honduras. If we did lose, then we could still qualify had Panama also lost and by a bigger margin. We had a 0-0 draw against them the first time, so this was easily doable. What happened next was one of our worst losses ever.

Look at how scared the Canadians looked in that game. Not even Cuba got destroyed in the same way that we did in that match. That embarrassing loss summed up Canadian football in a nutshell.

Another embarrassing loss was Haiti's comeback against us in the recent Gold Cup when we had Davies, David, Hoilett, Hutchinson, and Cavallini to call upon.
 

Rolandofgilead

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Iceland 2-1 England. Euro 2016.

Norway 2-0 England. 1993 WCQ.

Both of these games stick in my memory, both horrendous performances.
 

klsv

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Republic of Ireland spanking Estonia 4-0 at the EURO 2012 qualifiers' play-offs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm used to Estonia getting beaten by larger margins, but that definitely hurt the most. In the play-offs for the first time ever, finishing second in a group with Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland and Faroes. Totally out of the blue, usually finishing second from the bottom in our groups. Ireland were the clear favorites but the spirits were high and we thought we might have a chance over two legs. We went one down on the 13th minute, got a red card in the first half and another in the second. A lot of people blamed the ref afterwards but if you lose 4-0 it's never just the ref. As said, Ireland were always the better side but I suppose the nerves also kicked in at that stage, awful match.
 

Phil

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England's been covered to death.

For Portugal, 0 - 1 Greece in Lisbon in the final of Euro 2004 hurt the most.
 

12OunceEpilogue

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Canada had a decent chance at entering the Hex stage in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualification. We cruised through the 2nd round and entered the 3rd round in a group with Honduras, Panama, and Cuba. Whilst Honduras were a decent side back then, Panama and Cuba weren't, so Canadian fans felt pretty good about getting into the Hex. Back then, we had a decent team with de Rosario, Julian de Guzman, Atiba Hutchinson, David Edgar, and Simeon Jackson headlining the team. We started off quite well with 7 points in the first 3 matches, topping our group. A loss to Panama made us a little nervous, but a convincing 3-0 win against Cuba at home made it so that qualification was in our control.

All we needed to do was to not lose against Honduras. If we did lose, then we could still qualify had Panama also lost and by a bigger margin. We had a 0-0 draw against them the first time, so this was easily doable. What happened next was one of our worst losses ever.

Look at how scared the Canadians looked in that game. Not even Cuba got destroyed in the same way that we did in that match. That embarrassing loss summed up Canadian football in a nutshell.

Another embarrassing loss was Haiti's comeback against us in the recent Gold Cup when we had Davies, David, Hoilett, Hutchinson, and Cavallini to call upon.
Jesus Christ, that Honduras display looked crushing for all involved.
 

mazhar13

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Jesus Christ, that Honduras display looked crushing for all involved.
Imagine how crushed I was afterwards. I was so confident in Canada to get into the Hex and have a shot at qualifying for 2014. The repercussions, however, resulted in Canadian football changing their ways and getting better as a result, but we still have a way to go to get past these kind of embarrassing results.
 

a_devil_inside

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England v Iceland was so bad.
Also v Brazil when Seaman made a balls up of Ronaldinho's cross/shot.
Croatia defeat hurt as England were really hyped to do well then.
Euro 2000 was depressing too
 

Snow

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It's a game that's brought up all the time. We still haven't managed to win Denmark once despite it being a country we've faced a lot. Better record against England, Spain, Italy, France. We're so bad against them that one of the recent biggest losses was also against them, 6-0 in 2001.
 

Gio

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Mate the Wales / Georgia / Kazakhstan games were tragic.

We should win on Friday but dreading the game v Norway or Serbia.
They all were. Georgia was most painful for me because we had done so well against the 3 big boys in that group, only to come undone against Georgia.

And yes, I worry big time about our defence against Haaland, if us and Norway get through.
 

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Where are the French/Italian/Spanish posters?

South Africa 0 - 3 Uruguay in the 2010 group stages. Lead to us not going through to the R16 in our home tournament.

France must have some crackers.
I would put the Saudi draw in 1998 as worse then that... that 98 team was a much better team and would have made it through to the last 16 with a win.
 

Gio

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3 matches, 1 win, when Ireland/England B beat England A, a draw against a fading Russia and a loss to eventual winners Holland, not that "excellent" pal and if Utd fans thought footie under lvg, jose was boring you haven't watched Charltons mixture in action..
Well firstly you qualified for an 8-team Euros, which was huge not only because you'd qualified for sod all in your history, but because you could say you were one of the top 8 teams in Europe, while the likes of France, Belgium and Portugal didn't make it. And secondly your 3 points there gave you the best record outside the semi-finalists, which means you could claim being the 5th best team in the competition. And shit football or not, it was a tough group with 1st and 2nd place knocking out West Germany and Italy in the semis, and you were a ball-hair away from squeezing out the Dutch.
 

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They all were. Georgia was most painful for me because we had done so well against the 3 big boys in that group, only to come undone against Georgia.

And yes, I worry big time about our defence against Haaland, if us and Norway get through.
Aye it was awful, that Georgia game. If ever a Scotland game had been scripted before kick-off, that was it.

Aye it's a real worry. We just can't seem to ever have a decent centre-half pairing.
 

Vault Dweller

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Well firstly you qualified for an 8-team Euros, which was huge not only because you'd qualified for sod all in your history, but because you could say you were one of the top 8 teams in Europe, while the likes of France, Belgium and Portugal didn't make it. And secondly your 3 points there gave you the best record outside the semi-finalists, which means you could claim being the 5th best team in the competition. And shit football or not, it was a tough group with 1st and 2nd place knocking out West Germany and Italy in the semis, and you were a ball-hair away from squeezing out the Dutch.
And at least both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland can actually make tournaments! 22 fecking years and counting for us, I was 8 when I last saw Scotland at a tournament.
 

Infestissumam

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Austria had some horrific results in the Euro 2000 qualifying group ... first losing 9-0 to Spain, then losing 5-0 to Israel. That was a team that had made the WC 98 and was solid there, so getting hammered like that in early 99 was a bit of a shock.

Losing to Hungary at Euro 16 was tough too. I think we all expected a bit too much, but that tournament was still a huge disappointment. Here's hoping we're better next year.

And of course, losing to Faroer in 1990 stands out ... probably the most embarrassing result of all.
 

Gio

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Aye it was awful, that Georgia game. If ever a Scotland game had been scripted before kick-off, that was it.

Aye it's a real worry. We just can't seem to ever have a decent centre-half pairing.
It's been a long time since we did. I wonder if he'll go 3-5-2 to fit in Tierney and Robertson.
 

Grib

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Depending on how you mean worst

But if you aren't taking it to mean embarassing then this would probably be it


Two soft goals to give away and plenty of chances at the other end wasted, world cup quarter final place up for grabs
 

JPRouve

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Objectively for France it has to be the record loss against Denmark in 1909, 17-1. Now I wasn't around, so I can't really tell how the mood was in the country but from what I understand the worst losses are actually the 1-2 against Bulgaria in 1993 and the loss against the RFA in 1982. These two games are burnt in people's minds.
 

uamini

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Wouldn't you say that losing 0-3 to Portugal's B-team at the Euros 2000 or drawing Latvia in the 2004 tournaments were much worse?
If we neglect a match's importance then I'd consider the 1-5 loss in Romania in April 2004 to be the worst. Technically Germany was a current World Cup finalist and yet they were down 4-0 after the first half and got completely embarassed until they managed to get a late consolation goal. The 98-04 era was full of horrible results against second-rate nations that clearly had lost the fear they used to have when playing Germany.
Another candidate would be that friendly game in 1999 in the USA that saw an average American team take a 3-0 lead after a mere 26 minutes before coasting to an easy victory. I'd consider that one to be slightly less terrible because it was obvious that no one wanted to fly to America in February to play some meaningless games.
 

SirReginald

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England losing to Australia has got to be up there as one of the worst. Mind you international football in general is the worst.
 

awop

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Objectively for France it has to be the record loss against Denmark in 1909, 17-1. Now I wasn't around, so I can't really tell how the mood was in the country but from what I understand the worst losses are actually the 1-2 against Bulgaria in 1993 and the loss against the RFA in 1982. These two games are burnt in people's minds.
Also too young to remember these but Bulgaria gets talked a lot. For more recent ones, the 2 final losses against Italy and Portugal were very hard to take. To think we should/could have 2 more major titles in that short period of time...
 

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I'm not sure which team gave France the biggest beating but for me and many French, but 1982 in the semi-final against West Germany is probably the most enraging and worst 'defeat' France has had to endure.

Story for those not in the know.
 

Karlos PFC

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Greece vs Faroes 0-1

An abomination of a match

Fun fact, it was the last match Claudio Ranieri was in charge before taking over at Leicester...the rest is history
 

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Most painful was losing to Greece in the 2004 Euros final. WC semi vs France in 2006, Euros semi vs Spain in 2012 and Euros semi vs France in 2000 all come close though.

Most embarassing was going out in the 2002 WC group stage to Korea after finishing the game with 9 men when that was probably the best squad we’ve ever taken to a World Cup
 

Andi Latte

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March '99: Spain vs Austria 9 - 0 (EC qualifier)

Pretty embarrasing, Spain at the time had a decent team, yet never won anything substantial. Austria came off the back of a disappointing WC in '98, but the fact that they even qualified in the first place was seen as a sucess and they were seen as a team on the way up.

Pretty good team at the time also, with the likes of Vastic, Polster and Herzog in attack, but a shambolic defense + goalkeeper and a clueless manager in Prohaska did their part in the highest defeat since 1908. It was also Prohaska last game as coach, and rightly so, goes to show that great players seldomly transistion into good coaches.

Also, 1990: Faroe Islands vs Austria 1:0, which is pretty self-explanatory :rolleyes:

Edit: the coach at the time was Prohaska of course. Both Prohaska and Krankl were such great players, yet so bad at their manager jobs, I get them mixed up every once in a while
 
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NoneBmStore

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Our worst defeat was our 5-1 defeat to the hands of Spain at thw 1986 World Cup.
We were amonsgt the favorites and obliterated Uruguay 6-1 in the group stage. Started out well against Spain, but collapsed completely.
Along with the loss to Spain in the semis at the 1984 EUROs on penalties, Danish football could easily have ended up with 1984 EURO and 1986 World Cup triumphs.
If any of you care for a good read, this article is quite interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2009/oct/13/forgotten-story-denmark-1980s
 

D4X73r

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Austria had some horrific results in the Euro 2000 qualifying group ... first losing 9-0 to Spain, then losing 5-0 to Israel. That was a team that had made the WC 98 and was solid there, so getting hammered like that in early 99 was a bit of a shock.

Losing to Hungary at Euro 16 was tough too. I think we all expected a bit too much, but that tournament was still a huge disappointment. Here's hoping we're better next year.

And of course, losing to Faroer in 1990 stands out ... probably the most embarrassing result of all.
Also wanted to say the Faroer match. We lost to amateurs playing for their nation in a stadium in sweden, as they didn't have a stadium for such a game.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands_v_Austria_(UEFA_Euro_1992_qualifying)
 

Hansa

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Our worst defeat was our 5-1 defeat to the hands of Spain at thw 1986 World Cup.
We were amonsgt the favorites and obliterated Uruguay 6-1 in the group stage. Started out well against Spain, but collapsed completely.
Along with the loss to Spain in the semis at the 1984 EUROs on penalties, Danish football could easily have ended up with 1984 EURO and 1986 World Cup triumphs.
If any of you care for a good read, this article is quite interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2009/oct/13/forgotten-story-denmark-1980s
Great team that. I think a huge number of Norwegians my age at the time adopted Denmark as one of our favourite NTs, lacking a proper team ourselves. In fact, the 5-1 defeat at home vs Denmark during the qualifiers for the '86 World Cup is probably the worst I can remember from our point of view.
 

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Against Italy in Euro 2000. Miss 2 pens in regular time and 2 in the shoot out.

The battle of Neurenburg in 2006 sucked too. Or losing the world cup final in the 117th minute.

Oh, and going out to Russia in 2008 after clobbering France and Italy in the group stages.
 
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SadlerMUFC

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They say to truly shatter ones dreams, first you have to raise their expectations. So for me, last year against the USA, Canada won the first leg 2-0 in the CONCACAF Nations League only to lose the return match and finish 2nd in our group. But as much as that hurt, nothing compares to going into a match vs Hondurus in a must win match and losing 8-1. The only saving grace is that soccer in Canada is finally starting to look bright with young stars like Jonathan David and some kid named Alphonso who plays in Germany...