West Germany scored the only goal in the first 10 minutes of the match, which progressively deteriorated to a virtual standstill in the second half.

[2] This change made it highly impractical for teams to engage in match-fixing, since they would not know what result was required ahead of time.

[5] As Algeria played that final match the day before West Germany met Austria, the two European teams knew what result they needed in order to qualify for the next round.

After ten minutes of furious attack, West Germany succeeded in scoring through a goal by Horst Hrubesch after a cross from the left.

The only Austrian player who seemed to make any effort at livening the game up was Walter Schachner, though he had little success, while one of the few serious attempts on net was made by Wolfgang Dremmler of West Germany.

George Vecsey, a New York Times journalist, stated that the teams "seemed to work in concert", though added that proving such would be impossible.

The teams were separated by goal difference, with West Germany and Austria progressing to the next round of the tournament at the expense of Algeria.

Also, for three of the starting players (Horst Hrubesch for West Germany, Josef Degeorgi and Roland Hattenberger for Austria), an additional incentive to avoid aggressive play was that they had been previously booked in their respective teams' first two games.

Under the rules then in force, an additional yellow card for any of them in the final group match would have resulted in them serving an automatic one-match ban to start the second round.

In addition, the president of the Algerian Football Federation opined that referee Bob Valentine should have intervened and his failure to do so was worthy of complaint.

[13] West Germany manager Jupp Derwall defended his team from the criticism, pointing out that Uli Stielike and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were both unfit.

In The Irish Times, Rob Smyth wrote that "The 10 minutes after Hrubesch's goal would even be described as exhilarating in some cultures, with Wolfgang Dremmler forcing a fine save from Friedrich Koncilia (the second and final shot on target in the match) and Paul Breitner missing two good chances.

As late as the 77th minute, when the game was losing what edge it had, Bernd Krauss broke into the box and forced a desperate clearance from Hans-Peter Briegel.