The biggest World Cup upsets

Anything can happen in a World Cup. Here are five of the best David-and-Goliath moments from the world's grandest sporting tournament.

(1) United States 1, England 0 (1950 in Brazil)
England had snubbed the World Cup for 17 years, believing it had clearly the strongest team in the world.

Making their first appearance at a Cup in 1950, the English were huge favourites to defeat an American side that had lost its previous seven matches by a combined score of 45-2.

But when Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens scored the winner for the USA, the football world was stunned. It would be 16 more years before England would win their first (and only) World Cup.

(2) Cameroon 1, Argentina 0 (1990 in Italy)
The 1990 tournament kicked off with Diego Maradona's reigning world champions taking on a Cameroon side that had played in just one World Cup and never won a match.

After an hour the Africans were reduced to 10 men when Andre Kana was sent off. Yet six minutes later the underdogs hit the lead through a Francois Omam Biyik header.

Argentina pressed hard for an equaliser, but despite having another player sent off Cameroon was able to hold on and clinch their first - and most famous - World Cup win.

(3) South Korea 2, Italy 1 (2002 in South Korea and Japan)
With a quarter-finals spot on the line, European powerhouses Italy led through Christian Vieri with moments left on the clock.

But an 88th-minute equaliser to Seol Ki-Hyeon sent the match into extra-time, before Ahn Jung-Hwan slotted home a golden goal in the 117th minute.

The game featured a number of controversial refereeing decisions - most notably a dubious offside ruling to deny Vieri a second goal - but it was still a stunning upset, echoing memories of North Korea's equally improbable victory over the Italians in 1966.

(4) Algeria 2, West Germany 1 (1982 in Spain)
Two-time winners West Germany went into the tournament as 3-1 favourites to win the Cup, while first-timers Algeria's chances at going all the way were rated as 1000-1.

Yet football is a funny game. On the first day of the tournament the Germans were stunned 2-1, and were suddenly at risk of missing the knock-out stages.

West Germany did eventually advance at the expense of Algeria, following a 1-0 win over Austria that saw both nations progress amid claims of match fixing.

(5) Senegal 1, France 0 (2002 in South Korea and Japan)
In many ways, this was a repeat of the Cameroon-Argentina stunner. Reigning champions France were given a seemingly easy match to kick off the World Cup against lowly Senegal, who were making their first Cup appearance.

With star playmaker Zinedine Zidane out injured, the French watched on as Senegal midfielder Pape Bouba Diop put the Africans in front after half an hour.

The star-studded France side went on to be knocked out at the group stage, without scoring a goal, while Senegal progressed to the quarter-finals.