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
2006 in Russian football and Rubin played S.V. Zulte-Waregem and Parma F.C., respectively. Both Russian clubs were eliminated. Rossiyanka Moscow Oblast won the league, with Spartak Moscow finishing second and Nadezhda Noginsk third. The Cup also went to Rossiyanka, while Spartak were runners-up again. Russia women's national football team participated in the qualification for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup. They finished second behind Germany, failing to qualify. In August–September Russia hosted the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship, held in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The Russia national team finished second in group A which also included Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand, and lost