Germany claim their first World Cup title at the 1954 tournament.

Germany have won three World Cup titles, and while you can never underestimate Die Mannschaft in international tournaments, they certainly weren’t the favourites when they won their first title in 1954.

Placed in Group 2 alongside South Korea, Turkey and tournament favourites Hungary, Germany got off to a flier when they beat Turkey 4-1 in their opening game. However, they were on the end of a massive reverse when they took on Hungary’s Magical Magyars in their next fixture.

The 8-3 thumping remains the country’s heaviest defeat in World Cup history, but it did not deter Sepp Herberger’s men who still qualified from their group after a play-off victory against Turkey.

A 2-0 victory over Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals and a 6-1 drubbing of Austria in the semis set up another meeting with Hungary in the Final on this day, and it proved to be a classic.

With the legendary Ferenc Puskas leading the Hungary line, the Magyars were 1-0 up within six minutes and Zoltan Czibor doubled that lead just two minutes later.

It looked like Germany could be on the end of another big defeat but Herberger’s side dug deep and produced an almost instant reply through Max Morlock on ten minutes. Eight minutes later they were level through Helmut Rahn and all of a sudden the result did not appear to be such a foregone conclusion.

The sides remained deadlocked until the 84th minute when Rahn was again on hand for Germany to complete one of the great comebacks of all time and break Hungarian hearts.

To this day, Germany remain the only team in the history of the competition to have won two matches after going two goals behind – the other coming in their victory over the Three Lions during the 1970 quarter-finals.