Season’s meetings, no. 6 – Brazil and Sweden, 1994 World Cup

• See here for previous Season’s Meetings articles

Today’s World Cup third-place play-off will see England and Belgium wear their change kits, having been in their usual colours when they met earlier in the competition.

It brought to mind a similar situation from a previous World Cup, albeit one involving more legitimate reasons for alternative kits to be worn.

Brazil and Sweden were in Group B together in the 1994 World Cup and for their meeting on the Astroturf of the Pontiac Silverdome, Sweden were the home team, meaning Brazil changed to their second strip.

A 1-1 draw was enough for both sides to advance to the second stage, with Brazil topping the group. A 1-0 win over the USA brought them to the quarter-finals against the Netherlands.

Meetings between Brazil and Holland have been dealt with inconsistently by Fifa over the years – both wore home kits in the 1998 semi-final, for instance – but here a changed was ordered.

As the away team, the Dutch wore white but it was felt that that didn’t provide enough differentiation against Brazil’s yellow, so they wore the blue and white kit again.

Sweden also made it to the last eight after a win over Saudi Arabia, and their quarter-final also saw two away kits worn. It was a similar situation as Romania were the home team but Sweden’s away was white, so Romania wore red.

Brazil beat the Netherlands 3-2 while Sweden got past Romania on penalties, meaning the sides would meet again in the semi-finals. Brazil were the home team, but because of Sweden’s white away kit, they had to wear blue again, this time with the home shorts.

It didn’t affect them though as Romario’s goal earned them a 1-0 win and they went on to beat Italy on penalties in the final.