It’s been happening for 20 years when France failed to progress past the group stage, Spain suffered in 2014 and only Brazil escaped in 2006
If there is one team that will be closely watched during the first matches of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it is France. The reigning world champions come to the event as one of the favourites, along with Brazil and Argentina. And it is likely that if it weren’t for their internal problems, they would be the main candidates to lift the cup on December 18.
But France has to overcome a major obstacle during the first week of the World Cup: moving on from the group stage. It may seem like a joke, but in the last 20 years only one world champion -Brazil in Germany 2006- has made it through the first round. France itself started this kind of curse in 2002 when Korea and Japan fell into a group with Senegal, Denmark and Uruguay on the first exchange.
Six years later, Italy regained the curse. The transalpines could not advance to the round of 16 after facing Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. South Africa saw the birth of a new world champion, the eighth in history. Casillas raised Spain’s first World Cup to the skies of Johannesburg.
And precisely, it was the great captain of the national team who, four years later, left an image in Brazil that will never be forgotten. Casillas, on his knees and his face contorted, marked the end of a historic cycle for La Roja. Spain fell 5-1 to the Netherlands and confirmed their elimination days later after losing to Chile. The win against Australia was useless. Spain was also ‘cursed’.
The last to suffer the curse was Germany. The Germans said goodbye to the World Cup in Russia in the first exchange in a group consisting of Mexico, Sweden (the only rival they defeated) and South Korea.
Source: La Verdad
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