Pre-Match Poser no.16: Can you answer this elite-level football quiz question?

Another week, another Pre-Match Poser…

There have only been 40 and there were none in Arsenal’s Invincible season. Jonathan Walters is the only man to have gotten one in a season that Jose Mourinho won the Premier League title. One American got one; another American didn’t. Yakubu has more of them than Thierry Henry. Six different Chelsea players got one each. Alan Shearer, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane didn’t get one, but Demba Ba, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Edin Dzeko all did. What are we talking about?

We'll reveal the answer this time next week in the next edition of The Pre-Match Poser – stay tuned for that – but for now, here's the answer to last week's conundrum…

Q. Paraguay, the very next game; Croatia, the very next game; Argentina, three games later; Argentina again, getting revenge in the very next game; the Netherlands, five games later. Which country comes next in the sequence?

A. We're looking for the first team to defeat the reigning World Cup champion, going all the way back to the first team to win the competition in the 21st Century, Brazil. The Selecao (2002) lost their very next game to Paraguay, as did Italy (2006), to Croatia; Spain (2010) lost three games later to Argentina; Germany (2014) lost their very next game to Argentina (who they had just beaten in the final); and France (2018) lost five games later to the Netherlands. The next country in the sequence is Uruguay, who handed 2022 champions Argentina their first post-World Cup defeat nine games later on November 16, 2023.

More football quizzes we know you'll love

If The Pre-Match Poser was too easy for you this week, we have lots more trivia, quizzes and puzzles for you to try, all thanks to Kwizly.

We begin with a test of national pride and continental pressure. Can you name every English player to start a Euros final? It’s a roll-call that spans decades of "so close" and historic moments. Once you've navigated the Three Lions' history, we pivot to the sheer economic might of West London: see if you can name Chelsea's 50 most expensive players ever. It’s a journey through the Roman era and beyond, featuring some of the biggest fees in the game's history.

Next, we look at the ultimate test of who, where, and when: can you beat the confusion and tell us the club these 100 players DIDN'T play for? It sounds simple, but your brain will definitely be second-guessing every transfer you’ve ever heard of. For those who prefer the structural history of the game, we head to Germany: try to name every club to have won the Bundesliga. While one name dominates the recent era, there are many more historical giants to uncover.

To unwind after that mental workout, why not tackle FourFourTwo's Weekend Crossword 42, featuring stars, centre-backs, and Scrabble head-scramblers? It’s the perfect way to finish your session with some lateral thinking. To keep your trivia knowledge razor-sharp, join our daily newsletter, and register for free at The Club to participate in live Q&As, earn unique badges, and see your name at the top of our global leaderboards.