World Cup 2014: Tales of woe from the World Cup underachievers
World Cups are hard tournaments to predict - if teams always played to their rankings it would be a simple thing to do, but many times they do not.
Just as there have been famous examples of teams that rose above their expectations to shock everyone at a World Cup, there have been other examples of fancied sides who have fallen short of what the pundits expected.
There are times when the draw plays a part, like when a Cup favourite fails to make it out of the dreaded "Group of Death", where three or more big names are drawn together and only two can progress to the second round.
But sometimes, whether due to overconfidence or just a bad day, a top team will lose games it was expected to win and suddenly qualification is out the window.
The definition of failure changes depending on the team. For some, an inability to win the World Cup is seen as under performing, while for others the bar may be set at the semis, the quarter-finals or even the knockout stages.
But for the following six teams, there was no question in anyone's eyes that they had under-performed on the biggest stage in the round-ball game.
1950 - The "Kings" of England sent home early
England had ignored the World Cup for the first 20 years of competition, so 1950 in Brazil marked its Cup debut. The so-called "Kings of Football" had lost just four times in 30 games leading up to the tournament, and were one of the favourites to lift the Jules Rimet Cup.
The team was full of stars, including Stan Mortensen, Tom Finney and the great Stanley Matthews, who was absent for the start of the Cup because England had a tour of Canada running at the same time as the tournament.
England was in group two, alongside Spain, Chile and the United States and the team won the first game against Chile 2-0. Given that only the top team out of four would advance, however, manager Walter Winterbottom wanted Matthews on the park for the second match of the group against the US in Belo Horizonte.
The selectors decided otherwise, and Matthews was left in the stands.
The English dominated for large periods but could not make the breakthrough, before the United States grabbed the lead in the 37th minute, when Joe Gaetjens’ headlong dive met a shot by Walter Bahr to nod the ball past keeper Bert Williams.
England had a penalty turned down for a foul just outside the box inside the last 10 minutes, but had a goal disallowed from the resultant kick when the referee ruled that Jimmy Mullen’s header had not crossed the line.
When referee Generoso Dattilo blew the final whistle minutes later, the Americans had pulled off one of the greatest shocks in World Cup history.
England could still have qualified with a win over Spain, but a goal from striker Telmo Zarra gave the Spanish a 1-0 win and qualification, sending the English home before the knockout stages.
1966: Dual defending champs Brazil crash out
With World Cup wins in 1958 and 1962, the Brazilian side came into the 1966 World Cup in England as one of the four seeded teams along with the hosts, West Germany and Italy.
Brazil was drawn in Group Three along with Bulgaria, Hungary and Portugal.
In Brazil's opening match against Bulgaria, the South Americans went ahead in the 15th minute as Pele scored direct from a free-kick to become the first player to score in three straight World Cups.
Perhaps unnerved by this display of brilliance, Bulgaria's defenders chopped Pele down repeatedly in the remainder of the game.
Garrincha sealed the win with a goal midway through the second half, and Brazil won the game 2-0. Pele's heavy treatment led to him being unable to play the next match.
Brazil was stunned at the start, with Ferenc Bene opening the scoring for Hungary after just two minutes.
Tostao equalised 12 minutes later, but Janos Farkas put the Hungarians back in front in the 64th minute and as Brazil chased the game defender Kalman Meszoly scored nine minutes later to give his team the win.
Pele returned for the final game against Portugal, who had all-but sealed qualification with a 3-1 win over Hungary and a 3-0 win over Bulgaria.
When winger Antonio Simoes scored in the 15th minute for Portugal, Brazil was staring elimination in the face.
The Portuguese defence took no chances with Pele, fouling him at every opportunity. Finally Joao Marais went in with a savage challenge that should have earned a send-off, but did not.
The rules did not yet allow substitutes for injured players, so Pele was left to limp around for the rest of the game, leaving Brazil's chances in tatters. Eusebio had made it 2-0 in the 38th minute, and although Rildo pulled one back for Brazil in the 70th minute, Eusebio made sure of the result with five minutes left.
The unthinkable had happened, and Brazil was out in the first round. A devastated Pele vowed he would never play in a World Cup again.
1982: Hosts Spain lose to Northern Ireland, crash out in the second round.
If there was a dictionary definition of the term "World Cup underachievers", it would contain an illustration of a Spanish World Cup side.
For decades, Spanish teams had failed to live up to their potential, aside from a fourth place finish at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.
Hopes were high when Spain was chosen to host the 1982 World Cup, and the team was favoured to progress easily, drawn alongside Northern Ireland, Honduras and Yugoslavia.
The opening game was a shock to the system, as lowly Honduras took the lead with an eighth-minute goal from defender Hector Zelaya.
Roberto Lopez Ufarte converted a penalty in the 65th minute, but the home crowd was left bitterly disappointed with a 1-1 draw.
The second match was against Yugoslavia in Zaragoza, and Spain went behind early again through a 10th-minute goal from midfielder Ivan Gudelj, although the home side equalised four minutes later through a controversial penalty by Juanito. Saura scored the winner in the 66th minute to give Spain a vital 2-1 win.
The final match was against Billy Bingham's Northern Ireland, a team making a first Cup appearance since 1958.
Spain struggled to break down the opposition defence, and then in the 47th minute unheralded striker Gerry Armstrong took advantage of a mistake by the Spanish keeper to bury a rebound for the first goal.
Northern Ireland played most of the second half with 10 men after the send-off of Mal Donaghy, but the team held on for a memorable 1-0 win.
Spain scraped into the second round on goal difference, and was drawn with England and West Germany in a three-team group.
Goals to Pierre Littbarski and Klaus Fischer put West Germany 2-0 up, and a Jesus Maria Zamora goal was only a consolation.
With only one side going through to the semi-finals, Spain was eliminated even before the last game, a 0-0 draw with England.
The underachievers had done it again, and coach Jose Santamaria was sacked after another disappointing campaign.
2002: Defending champs France lose to Senegal, exit at group stage
France travelled to Japan and South Korea for 2002 as the defending champions, after Les Bleus shocked Brazil 3-0 in the 1998 final.
The man behind the 1998 triumph, Zinedine Zidane, was out injured for the opening match of the tournament, but given France's opponent was Senegal, few pundits believes his absence would make a difference.
The Senegalese had other ideas, however. France had the first main chance when David Trezeguet hit the post in the 23rd minute, but the champions were struggling to make headway.
On the half hour, the Lions hit on the break, with El Hadji Djiouf using his pace to get past defender Franck Leboeuf before crossing from the by-line for Papa Bouba Diop to score the opener.
France tried to get back in the game, but chances were few and far between.
Senegal's Khalilou Fadiga grazed the crossbar with a shot in the 64th minute, and French striker Thierry Henry hit the woodwork at the other end soon afterwards. In the dying minutes, Henry had the chance to equalise, but his shot was saved at the second attempt, as Senegal won 1-0 to start the tournament with a huge shock.
The second match was not much better, as the French had Henry sent off, and failed to score again in a 0-0 draw with Uruguay.
Les Bleus went into the final game against Denmark knowing that a win was needed to have a chance of progressing.
They received an early blow when Denmark sprung the offside trap and Dennis Rommedahl was on the end of a Stig Tofting cross to make it 1-0 after 22 minutes.
It was still 1-0 at the half, leaving France needing three goals in 45 minutes to stay in the tournament, but when Jon-Dahl Tomasson slotted the ball home with 26 minutes left, the game was up for Roger Lemerre's men.
It was a humiliating exit for the French, who departed without scoring a single goal in their Cup defence.
2010: 2006 finalists, France and Italy, out at group stage
Coming into the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, defending champions Italy were ranked fifth and team they beat in the final, France was ranked ninth by FIFA.
France was drawn with hosts South Africa, Uruguay and Mexico, while Italy was put in the same group as Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand.
Italy went behind in the opening match to Paraguay through a goal from defender Antolin Alcaraz, before Daniele De Rossi scored the equaliser for a 1-1 draw.
France started with a repeat of 2002, with a goal-less draw with Uruguay.
In the second match, Italy went behind to an early goal from Shane Smeltz for New Zealand, and although Vincenzo Iaquinta scored a 29th minute penalty, the Azzurri could not find a winner, ending up with another 1-1 draw.
The French came up against Mexico in Polokwane, but again failed to trouble the scorers, as goals from Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco gave the Mexicans a 2-0 win to leave the French on the verge of elimination.
Italy faced Slovakia in the final match and again went behind to a goal from Robert Vittek in the 25th minute. Vittek doubled the lead in the 73rd minute, before winger Antonio di Natale got one back eight minutes later.
Sub Kamil Kopunek restored the two-goal cushion in the 89th minute, and although Fabio Quagliarella scored in the second minute of added time, the champions were out of the tournament with a 3-2 loss.
The French played South Africa in Bloemfontein, and the home side went ahead through Bongalo Khumalo in the 20th minute.
A second goal to Katlego Mphela before half-time was the end of the section for the French, although Les Bleus scored a consolation goal to Florent Malouda in the 70th minute.
The previous Cup's finalists had never both failed to make the second round in the following Cup, until now. France and Italy had made history for all the wrong reasons.