2006 world cup

 Germany was host of this tournament held from June 9 to July 9. First tournament in which the defending champs (Brazil in this case) had to qualify for the tournament, meaning no automatic qualifying for champions. 2nd time Germany hosted.  Angola 🇦🇴 Ghana 🇬🇭 Ivory Coast, Trinidad and Tobago and Togo 🇹🇬 debuted here. Serbia and Montenegro made only appearance here. Montenegro had a referendum to become independent nations, which passed.  Serbia accepted results in early June. With that much time constraints, Serbia and Montenegro had to play together. Czech Republic played in their first tournament since split with Slovakia. Ukraine also made first appearance after the Soviet Union breakup.  One of the must watched tournaments with 715.1 million people estimated to watch the final.  345 yellow and 28 red cards handed out. Both records. First tournament which the host was in group A. Preceding tournaments had the champion in that group. Results: group A; Germany, Ecuador, Poland and Costa Rica. Group B; England, Sweden, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago. Group C; Argentina, Netherlands, Cote D'Ivoire and Serbia and Montenegro. Group D; Portugal, Mexico, Angola and Iran. Group E; Italy, Ghana, Czech Republic and United States. Group F; Brazil, Australia, Croatia and Japan. Group G; Switzerland, France, South Korea and Togo.  Group H; Spain, Ukraine 🇺🇦, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. Round of 16: Germany 2 Sweden 0, Argentina 2 Mexico 1 (et), Italy 1 Australia 0, Ukraine 0(3) Switzerland 0(0), England 1 Ecuador 0, Portugal 1 Netherlands 0, Brazil 3 Ghana 0 and France 3 Spain 1. Quarterfinals: Germany 1(4) Argentina 1(2), Italy 3 Ukraine, Portugal 0(3) England 0(1), France 1 Brazil 0. Semi finals: Italy 2 Germany 0 (et) and France 1 Portugal 0. 3rd place: Germany 3 Portugal 1. Final in Berlin: Italy 1(5) France 1(3). The final was infamous for Zinedine Zidane and his head butt on Marco Materazzi. Italy wins 4th title. Also Brazil was the one champion that had gotten out of group stage. Next three has current champions out in the group stage of following tournament. (Italy will start thus trend). Tomorrow 2010 in South Africa. Here us the logo for his one.