1914 FIFA World Cup

The 1914 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held in England from April 5 to 25, 1914 as it would be the last tournament before the first World War took place. Sixteen teams competed in the tournament which saw an increase to sixteen teams from fifteen in the previous edition.

The format of the tournament changed back to the group stage format that was successful in 1906 with the sixteen teams being grouped in four groups of four teams with the top two teams qualifying through to the knockout stage. The final saw upset  in the final in what some news outlets called the biggest boil-over in World Cup history with two goals in extra time securing Denmark their first (and to date only) major title.

Background
After the failure of the 1910 FIFA World Cup, FIFA elected to go back to the group stage format that had been successful in the 1906 edition. The hosting duties would then go to England who was the founding nation of modern football. The competition would have 16 teams competing in the World Cup for the first time which they would be split into four groups of four, with the top two going through to the knockout stage.

Qualification
For the first time in history, qualification had to be used to determent who would qualify through to the World Cup as the 20 teams that joined FIFA tried to qualify through to the World Cup. The top 12 teams automatically went through to the World Cup while the bottom four teams had to enter playoffs for the renaming four spots. The four teams to qualify were Scotland, Norway, Chile and Italy. For Chile and Italy, this would be the debut World Cup tournament for those teams.

Group A
The first match of the 1914 FIFA World Cup was held in Group A with hosts taking on  in London. For the English, they would get off to a good start with the scoring a hat-trick and  chipping in with a goal for himself. These goals would bring England a 4-2 victory on the opening day. The other match on the opening day, saw debutantes took on  at Manchester. Goals from and  gave the Swiss the victory by a score of 2-0.

The following matchday, England and Switzerland both booked their spot into the quarter-finals with comfortable wins. At Brighton, and Latheron each scored two goals in a 4-0 result over the South Americans in Chile. At Middlesbrough, Switzerland had a tougher time against Sweden with leveling the scores at 1-1 after Paul Wyss scored the opener for Switzerland. Switzerland would eventually get the victory in the 56th minute from a goal to give Switzerland a 2-1 result.

The deciding match for Group A ended in a goal from Fleming which gave the English, top spot in the group. For Switzerland though, it was a matter of what if's with chances being missed during the match. In the dead-rubber, Sweden recorded a 3-0 over Chile in Nottingham. Goals coming from, and  as Chile created history by being the worst team at the World Cup in history (until 1950) with a goal difference of negative nine.

Group B
Group B featured the runner-up from the previous World Cup in, , and. The opening matches on the 6 April saw the first draws of the World Cup with the draws being played in Brighton and Middlesbrough. For Belgium, their tournament would see one less player with shoulder ending his tournament as he had come off the pitch. In Middlesbrough, Denmark and Scotland played out a 1-1 draw with both goals being scored in the second half of the match.

The following match-day four days later saw the debutant in score the winning goal for Belgium against the Scots after Belgium fell behind twice in the match before eventually going to win 3-2 in Liverpool. The other match which was held in Nottingham saw two second half goals from (47th minute) and  (58th minute) to put Denmark on top of the table with one set of matches to go.

The deciding match of Group B saw Denmark and Belgium meet in London to see who would finish top of the group. The first half was a tight tussle which eventually would break in the 36th minute with scored the opening goal for Belgium. For Belgium, this meant they had the lead heading into the second half. It wouldn't be until the 70th minute of the match before their was a chance of score with scoring his third for the tournament to tie the match at one all. Despite a couple of chances for a winner, the match would end in a draw and for Denmark, they would take top spot in the group. The dead rubber match saw Scotland get a shaky 1-0 win over the Hungarians.

Group C
In Group C, the first upset of the tournament occurred when defeated  by a single goal. That goal coming from the 88th minute of the match with being the player to give Germany the win. The other match on the opening match-day saw a replay of the 1912 Summer Olympics gold medal match between the and. Much like the Olympics, the Dutch dominated the match with the result ending 5-0 in favor of the Netherlands. would also created history by being the first striker to score four goals in a World Cup match. wrapping up with a goal of his own in the demolition.

Norway did strike back in the next game of the group. This time against Austria in Manchester. Goals from, and  gave Norway a 3-1 win. While in London, Netherlands continued their devastating run in the cup with a four goal win over the Germans. The main culprit being that man Vos who scored his second hat-trick of the tournament and put him easily leading the tournament in goals.

In the deciding match of Group C, Norway was the team to go through with the Netherlands to the quarters after two goals from secured a 3-0 win and a spot in the quarter-finals. The Netherlands made it a clean sweep in the group stage after a 2-1 win over Austria. But a weaken lineup was almost their downfall when scored the opener for Austria. But two late goals in the last fifteen minutes made the Dutch more comfortable.

Group D
Group D was the last group for the 1914 cup. This group featured debutantes alongside,  and. The opening match of the group saw the French who weren't expecting to get out of the group cause an upset over Argentina in London. The winning goal coming from in the 56th minute of the match. Italy played their first World Cup match against Ireland in Manchester. For the Italians, goals from and  securing Italy the win. This was despite a late goal from in the 81st minute.

France continued to dominate the group, with a 4-1 win over the Irish at Middlesbrough. An hat-trick from (the fourth for the tournament) which included company from  who scored the other goal in the victory. In Brighton, Italy scraped to 1-1 draw against Argentina after a 89th minute equalizer from secured the draw against Argentina. For Argentina, they needed to win against the Irish to keep themselves in the hunt.

With Argentina hoping that luck would come their way, got their part done with a win against the Irish in Nottingham. The goal scorers ( and ) in a 2-0 victory. But Italy would go on to defeat France to not only knock out Argentina. But they also would get top spot in Group D. The goals coming from De Vecchi, and  in the 3-0 win. France still qualified as they finished second in the group.

Quarter-finals
The final eight teams met in the knockout stage of the competition. The opening quarter-final was between border nations England and France in what at the time was the biggest crowd in the tournament so far with 77,000 coming to London. In what was an interesting affair, it would be the hosts that book their third consecutive semi-final appearance in the World Cup as goals from and  secured a 2-1 win.

The other match on the 18 April saw a replay of the semi final of the most recent Olympics played in Birmingham. Compared to that semi-final, this one was a high scoring affair with seven goals being scored. Four of them being in a span in twenty-five minutes. Despite a hat-trick from, Norway would be knocked out of the tournament to a Nielsen hat-trick and a goal from as Denmark won the match 4-3.

The following day saw the match between rivals Netherlands and Belgium at Manchester. In a close tussle, Belgian keeper was brilliant in goal against Vol and the Dutch who had scored 11 goals in the group stage. The game was tight until the 117th minute when a lapse in ply from the Dutch let score the winning goal to book Belgium a spot in the semi-finals. The last match in the quarter finals saw De Vecchi and give Italy a spot in the semi-finals winning 2-1 over the Swiss in Middlesbrough, with both being scored in the second half.

Semi-finals
The opening semi-final between England and Belgium was a replay of the previous World Cup final. As the firm favorites heading into the match, the English would score the opening goal in the ninetieth minute of play with scoring the opening goal of the game. Continuing to have possession, England almost doubled their lead with a shot from Fleming going wide as England held a one goal lead at the break. The second half was much like the first with England scoring a goal in the 54th minute from to give the English a two goal lead. That would be the final result as missed opportunities from the Belgium strikers gave England their second World Cup final appearance.

The following day saw semi-final debutants Denmark and Italy met with the winner to qualify through to their first World Cup final. The first thirty minutes of the game saw both teams score a goal to keep the match level at the break. This was due to goals from (15th minute) to give Denmark the lead before  responded in the 26th minute from an easy set-shot piece. The second half of the match saw Italy take the lead for the first time with Leone scoring a goal in the 58th minute. Nielsen though would respond back for the Danes to have it all level with 25 minutes to go. In the end, Denmark striker would score the winner for Denmark in the 84th minute to book a World Cup final spot for the Danes.

Goalscorers
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1 goal
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