Numbers leave too much room for manoeuvre, it seems, which is why some games take on names of their own.

The May 19 Incident – China vs Hong Kong, World Cup Qualifying 1985

The Hong Kong team travelled to the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing in 1985 to play a qualifier for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. It was a game that lives in the memory for a number of reasons, not least the unfancied visitors having “their finest hour in international soccer”, as the Post match report described it.

Reliving Hong Kong’s famous World Cup win over China in 1985

A 2-1 win in front of 80,000 people brought shame on the China players and later the fans, who rioted outside the stadium. That resulted in the first arrests for football hooliganism in the PRC, with 127 taken in by police.

Hong Kong lost to Japan over two legs in the second round and have not come as close to qualifying for the World Cup since. China reached their only finals in 2002.

Maracanazo – Brazil vs Uruguay, World Cup 1950

One national team’s nadir is another’s zenith and that has never been more true than the 1950 World Cup meeting between hosts Brazil and Uruguay. The selecao were the clear favourites going into the decisive final group game at the iconic Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, a game that was essentially the final itself. Uruguay needed to win to top the group and win the Jules Rimet Trophy, while Brazil only needed to avoid defeat.

Excitement was at fever pitch, with many in Brazil, including the media, believing the World Cup was as good as won. An official crowd of 173,830 was in the stands to cheer the team on –with estimates that there could have been 30,000 more – and it was all going to plan when Friaca opened the scoring early in the second half.

The script was torn up in six second half minutes. Goals from Pepe Schiaffino and Alcides Ghiggia put Uruguay in front with 11 minutes to go. The game became known as the Maracanazo (loosely “the agony of Maracana”) and changes included ditching the white kits, which were replaced with the famous canary yellow.

Brazil have won a record five World Cup finals since, although the ghost of this final is never far from thoughts when they meet Uruguay.

Brazil’s 7-1 semi-final loss to Germany when hosting the 2014 World Cup has since become referred to the “Mineirazo”, as it took place at the Mineirão stadium in Belo Horizonte.

The Battle of the Buffet – Manchester United vs Arsenal, 2004-05 English Premier League

While there have been many iconic games between Manchester United and Arsenal over the years, there is only one that has taken on a life of its own. The teams met at Old Trafford in 2004 with Arsenal the English Premier League champions, having gone the previous season unbeaten.

That run came closest to being broken almost a year earlier in a game dubbed the Battle of Old Trafford, a name it shared with a 1990 game between the sides that saw them both docked points after a brawl.

When Manchester United’s Ruud van Nistelrooy stepped up to take an injury time penalty against Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, the Dutch striker rattled the crossbar and the ball bounced to safety. Visiting players crowded the Dutchman and celebrated his miss in his face.

There was no love lost between the teams or their managers, Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. The two best teams played out a game befitting of the enmity between the old foes, with a number of unpunished challenges adding to the spice of the occasion. The hosts would win 2-0, the second a Van Nistelrooy penalty, ending Arsenal’s unbeaten run at 49 games.

Tempers flared in the tunnel after the game with managers and players squaring up. One Arsenal player was said to have thrown post-match pizza at Ferguson in an incident that became known as “Pizzagate”. Speculation that the culprit was Cesc Fabregas was confirmed by the Spaniard himself in 2017. The Battle of the Buffet marked the beginning of the end of the rivalry between the clubs, certainly as title challengers.

Battle of Santiago – Chile vs Italy, World Cup 1962

Hosts Chile took on Italy in the capital after criticism in the Italian press and the game soon descended into violence. Two players were sent off – and this was the days before red and yellow cards – and the police had to intervene on a number of occasions to ensure the game carried on. Notably, the game’s English referee, Ken Aston, went on to introduce red and yellow cards to football.

The “Battle of” epithet has been given to a number of other games before and since. The Battle of Highbury saw England take on World Cup winners Italy in 1934 at Arsenal’s stadium in a game that was pockmarked by violence.

Likewise, the “Battle of Bordeaux” was the name given to the eye-watering meeting between Brazil and Czechoslovakia at the 1938 World Cup in France, while the “Battle of Bern” came between Hungary and Brazil at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and fighting continued on after the final whistle. The Battle of Goodison a decade later saw both Everton and Leeds United walked off the pitch by the referee for a 10-minute break to cool down and fans warned of their behaviour.

It’s not confined to the days of sepia footage. The “Battle of Nuremberg” took place at the 2006 World Cup in Germany in a round of 16 meeting between Portugal and the Netherlands. A record four red cards and 16 yellows were shown by Russian referee Valentin Ivanov.

That’s not quite as dramatic as the “Battle of Bramall Lane”, a name given to the 2002 English First Division meeting between Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion. Three sendings-off and several injuries left the hosts with just six players and the game had to be abandoned.

Disgrace of Gijón – Austria vs West Germany, World Cup 1982

The European neighbours knew what result would see them through the group stage going into the game as Chile and Algeria had played their final game the day before. A win for the Germans, by one goal or two, would take them through with table-topping Austria. That goal came 10 minutes in and there was little effort from either side to change the scoreline over the subsequent 80 minutes.

While the teams were cleared of match-fixing, the game was the nail in the coffin for a group stage fixture list open to abuse through collusion and from the 1986 World Cup all final group games were played at the same time.

The Shame of La Plata – Estudiantes vs AC Milan, Intercontinental Cup 1969

Argentina’s Estduiantes de la Plata were a fine team and back-to-back champions of South America, but something happened when they met Europe’s best. The previous year Estudiantes played Manchester United in the Intercontinental Cup and both legs saw players sent off in games viewed as some of the most violent they by the United contingent.

Little had changed in La Plata in 12 months. Estudiantes travelled to Milan for the first leg in a game they lost 3-0 before the return in Buenos Aires a fortnight later. That game was ultra-violent, with the Italian side’s white kits ending up covered in blood, particularly that of Gianni Rivera who was the target of much attention. Bizarrely, Milan’s Argentina-born France international striker Nestor Combin was arrested by police for draft dodging while laid out on a stretcher. Several Estudiantes players were arrested, while goalkeeper Alberto Poletti was handed a life ban and Ramon Suarez was banned from internationals for five years. In later years, several winners of the European Cup refused to play and the runners-up took their place instead.

The Death Match – FC Start vs Flakelf, 1942

Nazi-occupied Ukraine is the setting for a game that has become the stuff of legend, with football being introduced after a 72-day siege that saw the city fall. Dynamo Kiev had been one of the strongest sides in Soviet Russia before the war began and many of their players would go on to find work at the bread factory during the occupation. They formed a football team, FC Start, and beat all-comers, including the Nazi-sympathising FC Ruch.

That would not do and the Luftwaffe’s finest, the Flakelf, were dispatched to see off the bakers in 1942. The plan failed. Start would beat the propaganda machine 5-1 and a rematch was arranged for three days later. That game saw the Ukrainians 3-1 up at the half and, despite being told the Flakelf must win, Start held on to win 5-3. Rumours quickly spread that their reward was to be taken away to be executed.

That was not the case but Start’s players were later arrested and football between the Nazis and locals was banned. The game itself, which was referred to in the media as The Death Match from 1943, became mythologised over the years as the truth faded. It also provided the inspiration for the 1981 Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine film Escape to Victory, itself based on a Hungarian propaganda film Two Half-Times in Hell.