The World Cup group stage has come to an end after plenty of shocks and some big nations flopping. Here are some of the greatest stats from the 48 matches to take place in Qatar.
1) In their sixth World Cup appearance, Tunisia beat a European team for the first time: world champions France on matchday three. This was the African nation’s best World Cup showing since their first in 1978, but they still failed to qualify for the last 16 for the first time thanks to Australia’s 1-0 win against Denmark. Their previous record against European opposition was 0-4-7. The loss was also France’s first at the World Cup since their 1-0 defeat to Germany in the quarter-final eight years ago.
2) On day two of the tournament, England’s Bukayo Saka (21 years, 77 days) became the youngest player to score two or more goals on their World Cup debut since Franz Beckenbauer in 1966 (20 years, 304 days).
3) Gavi became the youngest Spaniard to play at a World Cup, and marked the occasion by becoming their youngest scorer (previously held by Cesc Fabregas). This came during Spain’s 7-0 demolition of Costa Rica. Oh, and Gavi’s goal made him the youngest World Cup scorer since Pele for Brazil in 1958 and the third-youngest of all time, behind Pele and Mexico’s Manuel Rosas.
4) This tournament was only the third time there was a single debutant (Qatar) taking part, and the first time the lone team making their first World Cup appearance was the host nation.
5) Brazil continued their astonishing record of playing at every single World Cup and never failing to make it out of their group. With their 1-0 victory against Switzerland, Tite’s side set the record for the longest unbeaten run in the group stage with 17. Cameroon ended that on the final group matchday, becoming the first African team to beat Brazil at a World Cup.
6) Not including penalty shootouts, Ghana became the first country to miss two penalties against the same opponent since data collection began at the men’s World Cup in 1966. Asamoah Gyan’s miss 12 years ago was heart-breaking, and Andre Ayew’s miss this year was just frustrating. What an awful run-up and penalty that was.
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7) Ghana’s Inaki Williams and Spain’s Nico Williams made tournament history on November 24 when they became the first full siblings to play for different countries at a World Cup….
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