Special scenario looming for Paul Wanner

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, Paul Wanner and Austria take action against Algeria in the fight for second place. After the 2-0 defeat against Argentina and Algeria’s victory over Jordan, both countries will battle in a head-to-head duel for second place in Group J.

In this duel, a bizarre scenario is right around the corner. The number 2 from the group will most likely face Spain in the next round, which many football fans consider a strong contender for the world title.

A draw is enough for both countries to advance to the next round, even if Algeria's goal difference (-2) could somewhat throw a spanner in the works. In addition, for Austria—so with PSV’s Paul Wanner thus in the squad—a small defeat could also turn out not entirely unfavourable.

With a small defeat, Austria always has a chance of a place among the best third-place teams with three points, and therefore a duel in the next round. After all, a third-place finish could see the Alpine country take on the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Egypt or Belgium.

So for both countries there is therefore the same kind of scenario in store as at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. At the time, Austria played its last group match against (West) Germany, where a small defeat for Austria was enough to advance together with Die Mannschaft to the next round, since Algeria and Chile had already played each other earlier and Algeria came out on top.

Already at the start of the match Austria - West Germany the Germans went ahead 0-1 via Horst Hrubesch. After that, both countries made no serious attempt to score again, which meant that both advanced to the next round at the expense of Algeria.

This match is still known to this day as 'The cheating of Gijón' and after the match both teams were jeered. After the match, the African country filed a protest with FIFA without success over the forgery, but the world football organization decided not to just let it go.

Since then, the final group matches have been played at the same time at the World Cup. UEFA also joined in here, and since the European Championship of 1984, the final group matches at the European Championship have also been played at the same time to prevent manipulation.