List of undefeated national association football teams

This page lists all association football national teams which managed to remain undefeated in either a FIFA World Cup main tournament, the qualifying process for that tournament, or both.

Fixtures decided by a penalty shoot-out are counted as draws and not as defeats.^[1] The tables only include teams which played at least one match in the particular final or qualifying tournament. They do not include teams which qualified automatically or by walkover, or teams which withdrew or were disqualified without playing any matches.

All but four World Cup winning teams were unbeaten in the finals. The four teams that won the World Cup despite losing a game in the finals were: West Germany in 1954 and again in 1974; Argentina in 1978; and Spain in 2010.

Another part of the teams listed below were eliminated despite not losing any games in the finals, or failed to qualify despite not losing any qualifying games. They exited the competition by various means: withdrawal; inferior points total or goal difference within a group; drawing of lots, away goals, or penalty shoot-out.

General statistics[edit]

Brazil have remained unbeaten in a total of seven World Cup final tournaments, more than any other team, including all five tournaments where they triumphed as world champions. Italy are a close second with six, and England and France are third with three each. No other nation has achieved this more than twice.

Germany (including West Germany) have had a record twelve unbeaten World Cup qualifying campaigns. In fact the German national team has lost only three World Cup qualifying games in its history: against Portugal in 1985, against England in 2001 and against North Macedonia in 2021.

A number of teams have managed not to record any losses during an entire FIFA World Cup cycle (qualifying and final tournaments):

• Italy (1934 and 1998), Brazil (1958, 1970, 1978 and 1986), West Germany/Germany (1990 and 2014), Spain (2002 and 2018), France (2006) and Netherlands (2014) all remained unbeaten during both the qualification and the finals (in 1970 Brazil actually did not record any draws either, managing to win every single match en route to the title).
• Uruguay (1930), Italy (1938 and 1990), Brazil (1962), England (1966), Mexico (1986) and France (1998) all did not have to go through qualifying tournaments, and did not lose any games in the finals (Uruguay in 1930 and Italy in 1938 did not draw any games either).
• Uruguay in 1950 qualified without playing any matches due to the withdrawal of their opponents, and did not lose any games in the finals.
• Several teams remained undefeated during a qualifying campaign but nevertheless did not appear in the subsequent final tournament. Each of Cuba, Lesotho, Morocco and Tunisia have had this fate twice. For others, see the tables below.

Legend to the tables[edit]

Colouring
Golden background: Team was undefeated in the final competition
Pale blue background: Team was undefeated in the qualification cycle

• The Result column indicates what stage the team reached in the particular final tournament: 1st = champion, 2nd = second place, 3rd = third place, 4th = fourth place, QF = quarter-finals, R16 = round of 16, GS = group stage, GS2 = second group stage out of two, GS1 = first group stage out of two.
• Other columns: Pld = matches played, W = matches won, D = matches drawn, L = matches lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against.
• The Lost to column indicates what opponent progressed at the expense of the team in question.

By tournament[edit]

1930[edit]

Team	Final tournament							Qualifying procedure						How the team was eliminated
	Result	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Lost by	Lost to
Uruguay	1st	4	4	0	0	15	3	qualified automatically						—	—

1934[edit]

1938[edit]

1950[edit]

1954[edit]

1958[edit]

1962[edit]

1966[edit]

1970[edit]

1974[edit]

1978[edit]

1982[edit]

1986[edit]

1990[edit]

1994[edit]

1998[edit]

2002[edit]

2006[edit]

2010[edit]

2014[edit]

2018[edit]

2022[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]