1978 Football World Cup - Argentina
Argentina '78
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Official 1978 Football World Cup poster
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Official 1978 Football World Cup logo
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| Participant teams
| 101
(final tournament: 16)
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| Host
| Argentina
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| Champions
| Argentina (1st title)
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| Matches played
| 38
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| Goals scored
| 102
(2.68 per match)
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| Attendance
| 1,610,215
(42,374 per match)
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| Top scorer
| Mario Kempes (ARG)
6 goals
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The 1978 Football World Cup was held in Argentina. It was won by Argentina who beat the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time in the final. This win was the first World Cup title for Argentina who became the sixth team (after Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Brazil, and England) to be world champions.
The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1974: 16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. Top two teams in each group would advance to the second round, where they would be split into two groups of four. The winners of each group will play each other in the finals, and the second place finishers in the third place match.
The Netherlands lost their second World Cup final in a row, both times to the host nation, after already bowing to Germany in 1974. Mario Kempes of Argentina lead the competition in scoring with six goals.
In a first-round game against the Netherlands, Scotland's Archie Gemmill scored a famous goal, which was later made a part of a memorable scene in the movie Trainspotting. Scotland needed to win the game by three goals to advance to the second round, and Gemmill made it 3-1 only for the Dutch to score and deny Scotland with a 3-2 result.
First round
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Second round
Group 1
Group 2
Third place match
Final
