2018 FIFA WC: Own-goals galore in Russia

Xtratime Web Desk: The 2018 FIFA World Cup came to an end as France got the title defeating Croatia in the final yesterday. Favorite teams failed to perform well and like other World cups many records were broken.

One record which was smashed was confirmed in the final, as Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic opened the scoring by turning the ball into his own net.




That goal was the 12th own goal of the tournament, which doubled the previous record of six own goals at the 1998 World Cup in France.

It was also the only own goal to be scored in a World Cup final in the history of the tournament. In fact, players put the ball into their own net in every stage of the competition – except for the semi-finals.

The group stage saw nine own goals, whilst the round of 16, quarter-finals and final each had one own goal.

The goal opened the scoring in a game which saw France win 4-2 against Croatia, allowing Les Bleus to lift the World Cup for the second time in their history.




France are also the team which benefited the most from own goals in this World Cup, as they also won against Australia in a group C match, as Australian Aziz Behich gave France the winning goal.

The first own goal was scored in the final minutes of a group B game, where Morocco’s Aziz Bouhaddouz scored the only goal of the game against Iran.

Other own-goals were scored by the following players:

  • Fernandinho (against Belgium)
  • Ahmed Fathy (against Russia)
  • Edson Alvarez (against Sweden)
  • Oghenekaro Etebo (against Croatia)
  • Thiago Cionek (against Senegal)
  • Denis Cheryshev (against Uruguay)
  • Sergei Ignashevich (against Spain)
  • Yan Sommer (against Costa Rica)
  • Yassine Meriah (against Panama)