With Portugal's qualification, a 23-year-old curse in the World Cup has been broken. Since the 1982 World Cup, there has been an eerie phenomenon in every World Cup: in the third and fourth place playoff matches since 1986, there is always one and only one team that fails to qualify for the next World Cup finals.
The third and fourth places in the 1982 World Cup were Poland and France respectively, both of which appeared in the 1986 Mexico World Cup, but subsequently, this "curse" has plagued the teams participating in the third and fourth place playoffs. The third-place French team in the 1986 World Cup, the fourth-place English team in the 1990 World Cup, the third-place Swedish team in the 1994 World Cup, the fourth-place Dutch team in the 1998 World Cup, and the third-place Turkish team in the 2002 World Cup all failed to qualify for the next World Cup after their respective performances. This means that the third and fourth place alternately missed out on qualifying for the next World Cup. According to this so-called curse, it was supposed to be Portugal's turn this time, and from the group stage situation, Portugal indeed came very close to elimination. In the final playoff, the injury absence of C-Ronaldo in the first leg also caused concern, but the Portuguese still broke the curse through their efforts.
Below is the distribution of the third and fourth places in the World Cups since 1986 and their subsequent qualification situations:
Overview of the 'Bad Luck' for Third and Fourth Place Teams Since 1986
Year Third Place Fourth Place Team Not Qualified Next Time
1986 World Cup France Belgium France
1990 World Cup Italy England England
1994 World Cup Sweden Bulgaria Sweden
1998 World Cup Croatia Netherlands Netherlands
2002 World Cup Turkey South Korea Turkey
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Portugal Breaks 23-Year Curse That England, France, And Netherlands Have Failed To Do.
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