Pre-Match Poser no.24: Can you answer this elite-level football quiz question?

This Pre-Match Poser may leave you scratching your head (unless you happened to listen to Adam Clery leaking it on his live stream on Friday…!)

Airdrie, Edinburgh and Sheffield are home to three of the four; Gerard Pique can represent the fourth. 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. Five Germans all became joint-first to do it, before one more did it 40 years later. Only one Italian did it, and technically, Thierry Henry was the last man to complete the set. What is it?

A. Finish first, second and third at a World Cup. Franz Beckenbauer, Wolfgang Overath, Sepp Maier, Horst-Dieter Hottges and Jurgen Grabowski all won the World Cup in 1974 after finishing second in 1966 and 1970. 40 years later, Miroslav Klose mirrored that achievement by winning the World Cup with Die Mannschaft, after finishing second in 2002 and third in 2006 and 2010. Franco Baresi has also done it, winning the ‘82 tournament, finishing third at Italia ‘90 and then losing the ‘94 final. Henry won the 1998 World Cup, finished second in 2006… and was a coach for the Belgium side that finished in third place at 2018.

More football quizzes we know you'll love

Dissecting a Pre-Match Poser with such surgical precision suggests your footballing IQ is operating at a Ballon d'Or level: so let's dig deeper and test your grasp of both the shooting stars and the perennial icons: a new collection of challenges is ready for you, courtesy of Kwizly.

We’re venturing into the exclusive corners of the continent where individual brilliance meets the ultimate stage. We want you to identify the marksmen who conquered multiple frontiers by naming every player to score 150 goals across 2+ of Europe's top five leagues, before hunting down the one-hit wonders of the elite: can you name every club from Europe's top five leagues to have only qualified once for the Champions League? It is a test of both prolific consistency and fleeting glory that separates the scholars from the spectators.

If your passion is more about the business of the game or the legends of Elland Road, we've got your back, folks. You can attempt to name every Leeds United player with 10 or more Premier League goals to prove your memory of the Yorkshire giants is top-tier, or switch to the boardroom and name the biggest transfer profits of all time. Either test is suitably tricky.

To wind down after that statistical masterclass, find a quiet spot for FourFourTwo’s Weekend Crossword 50, featuring clues on icons, monarchs and all-timers: the perfect way to test your lateral thinking over a post-match brew. To stay one step ahead of the pack, subscribe to our newsletter for your essential afternoon briefing of curated trivia. You can also secure your status as a terrace legend by joining The Club: our free membership community where you can unlock secret hints, earn digital badges, and fight for the number one spot on our global leaderboards.