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
China at the FIFA World Cup being purchased by citizens in order to watch their nation's first World Cup appearance. The team is colloquially referred to as "Team China" (中国队), the "National Team" (国家队) or "Guozu" (国足, lit. "national foot" also meaning national football). Eight players were fielded in all three of China's World Cup matches in 2002. China at the FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of "Fédération Internationale de Football Association" (FIFA), the