Editing 1982 FIFA World Cup (section)

===Format===
[[File:Selecció de futbol d'Hondures. Copa del Món de Futbol de 1982. (Alginet, País Valencià).jpg|thumb|[[Honduras national football team|Honduras team]] in [[Alginet]], during a June 1982 preparatory match.]]
The first round was a [[Round-robin tournament|round-robin]] group stage containing six groups of four teams each. Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw, with [[goal difference]] used to separate teams equal on points. The top two teams in each group advanced. In the second round, the twelve remaining teams were split into four groups of three teams each, with the winner of each group progressing to the knockout semi-final stage.

The composition of the groups in the second round was determined before the start of the tournament. Groups A and B were to include one team from each of Groups 1 through 6, and Groups C and D included the remaining six teams. The winners of Groups 1 and 3 were in Group A whilst the runners-up were in Group C. The winners of Groups 2 and 4 were in Group B whilst the runners-up were in Group D. The winner of Group 5 was in Group D whilst the runner-up was in Group B. The winner of Group 6 was in Group C whilst the runner-up was in Group A. Thus, Group A mirrored Group C, and Group B mirrored Group D with the winners and runners-up from the first round being placed into opposite groups in the second round.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!GROUP A
!GROUP B
!GROUP C
!GROUP D
|-
|WINNER G1
|WINNER G2
|WINNER G6
|WINNER G5
|-
|WINNER G3
|WINNER G4
|RUNNER-UP G1
|RUNNER-UP G2
|-
|RUNNER-UP G6
|RUNNER-UP G5
|RUNNER-UP G3
|RUNNER-UP G4
|}

The second-round groups that mirrored each other (based on the first-round groupings) faced off against each other in the semifinals. Thus, the Group A winner played the Group C winner, and the Group B winner played the Group D winner. This meant that if two teams which played in the same first-round group both emerged from the second round, they would meet for the second time of the tournament in a semifinal match. It also guaranteed that the final match would feature two teams that had not previously played each other in the tournament. As it turned out, Italy and Poland who were both in Group 1 in the first round, each won their second-round groups and played each other in a semifinal match.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://soccernostalgia.blogspot.ie/2015_05_01_archive.html |title=1982 FIFA World Cup Outline |date=31 May 2015 |work=Soccernostalgia |access-date=16 June 2015 }}</ref>