XtraTime Web Desk: The 2018 FIFA World Cup has been the most unpredictable and competitive World Cup till date. We have seen goals, drama and specially upsets, which has been the talking point of this particular edition. Apart from the thrills and spills which has kept everyone at the edge of their seats, there are significant records which have made this World Cup a tournament to remember.
Let’s have a quick look at the statistics so far from Russia:-
60 years since Pele became the fourth teenager to score multiple goals in a World Cup game, Kylian Mbappe became the fifth teen to achieve the feat.
48 years had passed since a team had overturned a two-goal deficit and won a knockout-phase match at the World Cup until Belgium rallied to stun Japan 3-2. The last had been West Germany, who came from two goals down to edge England 3-2 at Mexico 1970.
40 million: that is the cumulative attendance the World Cup reached thanks to the Sweden-Switzerland game. The tournament with the record attendance was USA 1994 (3.59 million), followed by Brazil 2014 (3.43m) and Germany 2006 (3.36m), while 2.58 million spectators and counting have attended Russia 2018 matches.
31 of the 146 goals scored at Russia 2018 (21 per cent) have been scored after the 80th minute.
28 penalties have been awarded at Russia 2018 – a record for a World Cup. Twenty-one has been successfully converted.
22 of the 56 matches played have been goalless at half-time. Only one of those, however, has finished 0-0. It took 37 matches for the first goalless draw of the tournament – a World Cup record.
17 matches as captain in the World Cup is what Rafa Marquez made it break Diego Maradona’s record. The Mexican also became the only player to wear the armband at five World Cups, and just the third to appear in five editions after Antonio Carbajal and Lothar Matthaus.
10 own-goals have been scored at this tournament, breaking the record of six set at France 1998. Morocco’s Aziz Bouhaddouz netted the latest one in World Cup history in the 95th minute against IR Iran, while Sergei Ignashevich, who turns 39 this month, became the oldest player to score an own-goal in the competition and ensured three straight Russia matches involved one.
7 consecutive World Cups have ended in Mexico suffering Round-of-16 elimination. In seven-and-a-half hours of action against Brazil in the competition, Mexico has failed to score and conceded 13 times.
6 goals as captain is what Harry Kane has scored to equal Maradona’s World Cup record. The 24-year-old has also tied the England record for goals at an edition of the tournament set by Gary Lineker at Mexico 1986.
3 consecutive World Cups have seen the defending champions fall at the group stage after Germany emulated Italy (2010) and Spain (2014).
3 successive appearances is what Colombia’s Yerry Mina became the first defender in World Cup history to score in.
2 goalkeepers have now saved three penalties in a World Cup shootout. Coincidentally, Croatia’s Danijel Subasic did it 12 years to the day after Portugal’s Ricardo became the first.
0 per cent: that is the conversion rate of England’s No 8s in their four World Cup penalty shootouts. Chris Waddle, David Batty, Frank Lampard and Jordan Henderson, who all wore the shirt number in 1990, 1998, 2006 and 2018 respectively, missed shootout spot-kicks. The latter’s saved attempt did not, however, prevent England from winning their first shootout in the competition.