On 26 June 1954, in a quarterfinal match of the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerla ...

, Austria beat

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

7–5 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The 12 goals scored in the match set a World Cup record, unequalled to date, for the highest scoring match ever. The match is known by its German name, ''Hitzeschlacht von Lausanne'' (roughly translated to "The heat battle of Lausanne"), due to the high temperature that it was played under, 40 °C (104 °F).

Match chronicle

Switzerland, the tournament hosts, took a notable lead early on. In four minutes, the Swiss scored three goals:

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Robert Ballaman opened the score at the 16th minute, followed quickly by two goals by

Josef Hügi Josef Hügi (23 January 1930 – 16 April 1995) was a Swiss international footballer who played as a striker during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. Career Hügi was born in the town of Riehen on 23 January 1930 and played football fr ...

. Austria then became the first team in World Cup history to recover from a 3–0 deficit, scoring 5 goals in the remainder of the first half;

Theodor Wagner Theodor "Turl" Wagner (6 August 1927 – 21 January 2020) was an Austrian footballer who played as a striker. International career He made his debut for Austria in a November 1946 friendly match against Switzerland and was a participant at th ...

initiated the Austrian response at the 25th minute; forward

Alfred Körner Alfred Körner (14 February 1926 – 23 January 2020) was an Austrian footballer. He played for Austria at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Club career Körner had a career with SK Rapid Wien and also played for FK Admira Wien (now VfB Admira Wacke ...

According to the officia
match report
by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Robert Körner Robert Körner (21 August 1924 – 22 June 1989) was an Austrian footballer. Club career Körner played for and captained SK Rapid Wien, and later managed SK Rapid Wien (four times), SV Waldhof Mannheim (as coach), and 1. FC Nürnberg (as co-tr ...

scored the second and fifth Austrian goals, but most sources not related to FIFA, including RSSSF(), SportZeitung (), ESPNbr>
and the BBCbr>
, state that Robert's younger brother, Alfred Körner, Alfred, scored those goals. The RSSSF page also states that Alfred Körner took and missed a penalty kick in the 42nd minute. drew the score to 2–3 one minute later, and another minute later Wagner equalized to 3–3. Austria had tied the score in three minutes. In 11 minutes, between the 16th and the 27th minutes, six goals were scored, three by each team. At the 32nd minute, Ernst Ocwirk gave Austria the lead; Körner added his second, making the score 5–3. Ballaman scored again for Switzerland at the 39th minute. The first half thus ended 5–4 in favour of Austria, being the highest scoring half in World Cup history, even after inside left Körner had missed a penalty kick in the 42nd minute.World Cup 1954 full details
– by Gwidon S. Naskrent et al., RSSSF. Retrieved 8 December 2006. Nine minutes into the second half, Wagner put Austria up 6–4 with his third goal, recording the seventh hat-trick of the 1954 World Cup (''See List of World Cup hat-tricks''). Hügi would then emulate the feat, scoring his third at the 58th minute. Switzerland was not able to equalize, and

Erich Probst Erich Probst (5 December 1927 – 16 March 1988) was an Austrian footballer who played as a striker. International career Probst made his debut for Austria in a May 1951 friendly match against Scotland and was a participant at the 1954 FIFA Worl ...

made it 7–5 to end the scoring at the 76th minute. According to

, the extreme heat adversely affected SwitzerlandWorld Cup Switzerland 1954 overview – "Did you know?"
– fifaworldcup.yahoo.com –

. Retrieved 8 December 2006. after they led the match 3–0 at one point. Other sources add that at first, Switzerland had been able to take advantage of the temperature, when Austrian goalkeeper

Kurt Schmied Kurt Schmied (14 June 1926 – 9 December 2007) was a goalkeeper for First Vienna FC and Austria national football team. International career He made his debut for Austria in May 1954 against Wales. He represented Austria during the FIFA World ...

suffered from hyperthermia early in the match, quickly allowing the first three Swiss goals, before being assisted by the Austrian masseur while in play.

Match

Details

References and footnotes

{{Switzerland national football team 1954 FIFA World Cup Austria at the 1954 FIFA World Cup

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

FIFA World Cup matches June 1954 sports events in Europe Nicknamed sporting events Sport in Lausanne Switzerland at the 1954 FIFA World Cup