<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <Ul> <Li> ← XLI </Li> <Li> Super Bowl </Li> <Li> XLIII → </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> ← XLI </Li> <Li> Super Bowl </Li> <Li> XLIII → </Li> </Ul> <P> Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2007 season . The Giants defeated the Patriots by the score of 17--14 . The game was played on February 3, 2008, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona . </P> <P> The game is regarded as one of the biggest upsets in the history of professional sports, as well as one of the finest Super Bowl games . The Patriots entered the game as 12 - point favorites after becoming the first team to complete a perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the only one since the league expanded to a 16 - game regular season schedule in 1978 . The Giants, who finished the regular season with a 10--6 record, were seeking to become the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl, and were also looking for their third Super Bowl victory and first since they won Super Bowl XXV seventeen years earlier . This Super Bowl was also a rematch of the final game of the regular season, in which New England won, 38--35 . </P>

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