Tap a yellow shirt card on the pitch and guess the hidden player.
A new puzzle every day at your local midnight.
How to Play Missing 11
Missing 11 — also written Missing XI — puts a real starting eleven from a match that was actually played on the pitch in front of you — the actual lineup, in the actual formation — and hides three of the names. Everything else is there: the positions, the shirt numbers, the eight players who did make it onto the team sheet. From that, you work out who is missing.
How a round works
One team from one historic final is chosen each day. Eight players are named on the pitch; three slots show a yellow ? card. Tap a card and type a name — and here is a detail worth knowing: a correct name for any of the hidden cards counts, even if you tapped a different slot. You are not being asked to place them, only to remember them. You have six guesses for the three names.
What you are actually reading
- The formation. A back four with an obvious hole at right-back tells you the position of the missing man before you know anything else.
- The shirt numbers. In older finals numbers followed position closely; a hidden number 9 in a 1990s lineup is almost always the centre-forward.
- The eight visible names. They date the match to a season, and often to a single squad you can picture.
- The opponent and the competition. Once you know it is the 2005 Istanbul final, the rest is memory rather than deduction.
Strategy
The mistake is to start guessing names for the slot you tapped. Start instead by identifying the match, because the moment you know which final this is, all three names usually arrive together. Read the visible eight as a group rather than individually — one player might have been at three clubs, but eight of them only overlap in one place at one time. If the lineup is recognisable but a single name will not come, the shirt number is the cheapest clue on the board; squads are numbered, and the gap in the sequence is often the answer.
Which matches appear
The rotation holds close to 100 lineups, all from big teams: great finals like Istanbul 2005 and the 2014 World Cup final, plus World Cup and Euro matches of national teams such as Portugal, Spain, France, England, Argentina, Brazil and Turkey. The point is that you can recognise the lineup when you see it. Each day one team from one match is chosen, everyone playing on the same date gets the same lineup, and the same lineup does not come back for months.
About the names and the search
Every lineup comes from the official match reports on Wikipedia, which is why the eleven on screen is the eleven that actually started. The search ignores accents and capitalisation — typing *Suker* finds Šuker — and entries use the name a player is commonly known by in football rather than the full legal name on a birth certificate. If you are certain of a name and the box will not accept it, the feedback button at the bottom of the page comes directly to us.
Scoring, sharing and the daily reset
Your result is how many of the three you found and how many guesses it cost. The share button copies a spoiler-free summary. A new lineup arrives at midnight in your own time zone; there is no account and your statistics stay on your device.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Missing 11 the same as Missing XI?
Yes — XI is simply 11 in Roman numerals, and the game goes by both names. It is the same football lineup quiz: a real starting eleven with three players hidden, and a new lineup every day.
How do you play Missing 11?
The real starting XI from a match that was actually played is laid out with 3 names hidden as '? ? ?'. Use the position, shirt number and the rest of the squad to guess the hidden names via the search box. You have 6 guesses.
Are the lineups real?
Yes — every lineup comes from the official match reports on Wikipedia. Some are iconic, like the 2005 Istanbul final; others are big teams' tournament matches. All of them are the eleven who actually started.
Which matches appear?
Close to 100 lineups, all from big teams: the great finals (Champions League, World Cup, UEFA Cup) plus big national teams' matches at the 2022 and 2018 World Cups and Euro 2024 and 2020. Each day one team's lineup is picked — one day it's Milan 2005, the next it could be Portugal 2022.
I know the name but can't find it — why?
The search ignores accents and case (typing 'Suker' finds Šuker). Try the name the player is commonly known by in football — entries use their common name, not their full legal name.