Northern Ireland at the FIFA World Cup Northern Ireland at the FIFA World Cup The Northern Ireland national football team have appeared in the finals of the FIFA World Cup on three occasions. Their best World Cup performance was in their first appearance in the finals, the 1958 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals after beating Czechoslovakia 2–1 in the play-off. They were knocked out by France, losing 4–0. In the 1958 competition Northern Ireland became the least populous country to have qualified for the World Cup, a record that stood until Trinidad & Tobago qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Northern Ireland remains, however, the
1982 FIFA World Cup Group B 1982 FIFA World Cup Group B Group B was one of four groups of national teams competing in the second stage of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. The group's three matches were staged at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid. The group consisted of three teams advancing from the first group stage: Group 2 winners West Germany, Group 5 runners-up, the host nation Spain, and Group 4 winners England. England finished the group with a goal difference of 0:0 - the only time that has ever happened in any kind of group in FIFA World Cup history. Like Scotland in