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
Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 FIFA World Cup The only participation of Trinidad and Tobago in the final stages of the FIFA World Cup came in 2006, when they qualified for the tournament in Germany, but failed to win any match and were eliminated at the group stage. Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest nation to reach the finals of a World Cup tournament, a feat previously held by Jamaica at the 1998 World Cup. They did very well. On 12 October 2005, Trinidad and Tobago secured fourth place in the CONCACAF final qualification round, and therefore participated in