Starting XI Quiz: Guess the Missing Player From Famous Lineups

A starting XI quiz shows you the lineup of a famous match with one player missing, and you have to name who it was. It sounds easy until you try it: everyone remembers the goalscorer, but few people remember the left-back. Below are eight famous lineups from World Cup and Champions League finals, each with one gap, followed by the answers and a few tips for getting better at lineup quizzes.

How a lineup quiz works

The idea is simple. You get the formation, the team, the match and ten of the eleven names. The eleventh spot shows a question mark. Your job is to fill it in.

What makes it interesting is that the missing player is rarely the star. A good lineup question hides the player people forget: the defender who played every minute, the midfielder who did the running, or the surprise starter who was only there because someone else was suspended or injured. That is why lineup quizzes reward people who actually watched the match, or who know its story.

Eight famous lineups with one player missing

Read each lineup, think of the missing name and then check the answers further down. The lineups are written from goalkeeper to attack.

1. Liverpool, 2019 Champions League final (4-3-3)

Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, ?

Hint: he played on the left of the front three and scored plenty of goals that season.

2. Spain, 2010 World Cup final (4-2-3-1)

Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Piqué, Puyol, Capdevila; Busquets, Xabi Alonso; Pedro, Xavi, Iniesta; ?

Hint: Spain’s leading scorer at that tournament, playing as the lone striker.

3. Germany, 2014 World Cup final (4-3-3)

Neuer; Lahm, Boateng, Hummels, Höwedes; ?, Schweinsteiger, Kroos; Müller, Özil, Klose.

Hint: he was not meant to start. Sami Khedira was injured in the warm-up.

4. Barcelona, 2011 Champions League final (4-3-3)

Valdés; Dani Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Abidal; Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta; Pedro, Messi, ?

Hint: a striker who joined from Valencia the summer before and scored a brilliant curling goal in this final.

5. Real Madrid, 2022 Champions League final (4-3-3)

Courtois; Carvajal, Militão, Alaba, Mendy; Modrić, Casemiro, Kroos; Valverde, Benzema, ?

Hint: he scored the only goal of the match against Liverpool.

6. Argentina, 2022 World Cup final (4-3-3)

Emiliano Martínez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico; De Paul, Enzo Fernández, Mac Allister; Messi, Julián Álvarez, ?

Hint: a winger who also scored in the 2021 Copa América final and the 2008 Olympic final.

7. Manchester United, 1999 Champions League final (4-4-2)

Schmeichel; Gary Neville, Johnsen, Stam, Irwin; Beckham, Butt, Giggs, ?; Yorke, Cole.

Hint: Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were suspended, so a Swedish winger started on the left.

8. France, 1998 World Cup final (4-3-2-1)

Barthez; Thuram, ?, Desailly, Lizarazu; Karembeu, Deschamps, Petit; Zidane, Djorkaeff; Guivarc’h.

Hint: Laurent Blanc was suspended after his red card in the semi-final, so this centre-back took his place.

Answers

1. Sadio Mané. Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid with goals from Salah (penalty) and Divock Origi.
2. David Villa. Spain beat the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time; Iniesta scored the winner.
3. Christoph Kramer. He came in for the injured Khedira and was substituted in the first half after a blow to the head; Mario Götze scored the extra-time winner against Argentina.
4. David Villa. Barcelona beat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley, with goals from Pedro, Messi and Villa.
5. Vinícius Júnior. His goal beat Liverpool 1-0 in Paris.
6. Ángel Di María. He scored Argentina’s second goal; the final against France ended 3-3 and Argentina won on penalties.
7. Jesper Blomqvist. United beat Bayern Munich 2-1 with two stoppage-time goals, from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær.
8. Frank Leboeuf. France beat Brazil 3-0, with two Zidane headers and a late goal from Petit.

Six or more is a very good score. If you got the Kramer and Blomqvist questions right, you clearly know your football history.

Why the missing player is usually not the star

Look at the answers again. Mané, Villa and Vinícius were stars, but Kramer, Blomqvist and Leboeuf were only in the lineup because of an injury or a suspension. That pattern is the heart of a good lineup quiz. The best questions combine a name people half remember with a story that makes it stick: a warm-up injury, a suspension, a debut in a final.

The same idea works across eras. A lineup from 1999 tests memory; a lineup from 2022 tests attention. Mixing the two keeps a quiz fair for younger and older fans.

Tips for lineup quizzes

• Learn lineups line by line. Remember the back four as a unit, then the midfield, then the attack. It is much easier than eleven separate names.
• Remember the story of the match. Who was suspended, who was injured, who made a surprise start. The surprise starter is very often the answer.
• Know the formation. If the formation is 4-3-3 and you are missing a forward, you only need to think of wide players and strikers.
• Use the positions on the pitch. The empty slot tells you where the player stood. A missing left-sided defender narrows the answer down a lot.
• Practise with different eras. Mix recent finals with older ones, so you are not only good at matches you watched live.

For more puzzles that test how well you know players, see our guide to guess the footballer games. For final-themed questions, try our Champions League trivia and World Cup quiz.

Play lineup questions in GolVix

GolVix has lineup questions: the starting eleven is drawn on a pitch with one player missing. Sometimes you pick the answer from four options, and sometimes it is a crossword clue where you type the name yourself, with suggestions as you type. Lineup questions appear in solo quizzes and in live 1v1 rooms, and every answer comes with a short explanation. All questions use settled facts up to the end of the 2024-25 season.