If it’s any solace to Spain, it wasn’t the first defending champion to exit the subsequent FIFA World Cup in the first round. Four other teams have suffered the same fate, although none of them lost their first two games in the tournament like the Spanish.
It seems rather churlish, however, to include Italy’s 1950 team in this list. Even though the Italians had won the 1934 and ’38 World Cups, the 12-year gap due to the Second World War had completely changed the squad.
Hence, the first authentic group stage failure for a defending champion was experienced by Brazil in 1966. After defeating Bulgaria in the opener, the Brazilians lost to Hungary and Portugal.
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Thirty-six years later, France crashed even more dramatically as it failed to score against Senegal, Uruguay and Denmark. And at the previous edition in South Africa, Italy did score but drew with Paraguay and New Zealand before losing to Slovakia. With Spain’s exit confirmed, Brazil (2006) is the only defending champion to progress past the group stage in the last four World Cups.
Yet, no team is likely to emulate what Uruguay did in 1934. Peeved at the absence of major European countries at the inaugural World Cup in the South American country, the Uruguayans chose to not defend their title in Italy. — Priyansh