When the decision to increase the participants of a World Cup final stage to 24, there was doubt on whether it would be a success. Just the fact that it was the first time when there was at least one team from every continent to advance to the second stage, was important enough to justify the attempt. As in every world cup before, the first on this one were the penalty shoot-out to resolve a draw, while it was the last to feature two rounds of group stages.

The peculiar event was that the champions Italy managed to advance to the second round without winning a single game in the first! Their captain, Dino Zoff, at the age of 40, became the oldest player to win the world title.