With the FIFA World Cup into the knockout stage, Qatar 2022 has defied predictions, with several illustrious teams stumbling early.
This is the first time since the 1994 Football World Cup (a 24-team tournament) that there are no teams with all-win records after the group stage.
Qatar 2022 also witnessed only five teams — Netherlands, USA, England, Croatia and Morocco — emerge out of the group stage unbeaten. This is the lowest number of teams undefeated in the group stage since the 32-team format started.
The record for most teams remaining unbeaten after the group stage stands at 12. This happened in the 1998 and 2002 editions.
The only time every group in a FIFA World Cup had a team with an all-win record was in the first World Cup in 1930, when there were four such teams in each of the groups.
This was the first World Cup in 20 years to have group winners from four different confederations. (AFC – Japan; UEFA – Netherlands, England, France and Portugal; CONMEBOL – Brazil and Argentina; AFCON – Morocco). The two previous time this happened was in 1986 and 2002.
Here are some of the records, statistics, numbers and more from the group stage of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar
- For the first time since 1994, there is no team emerged out of the group stage with an all-win record from the three games
- Brazil extended its proud record of progressing from the group stage at every single World Cup it has played in
- Germany, for the second successive World Cup, failed to progress past the group stage
- Qatar, which got automatic qualification as the host, became the first host nation to lose three consecutive matches in a single edition of the World Cup
- Portugal’s captain Cristiano Ronaldo became the first male player to score at five World Cups
- Ronaldo also became the first player to attempt 100 shots in World Cup history
- Argentina’s skipper Lionel Messi became the only man to register an assist at five World Cups.
- Cameroon became the first African team to beat Brazil at a FIFA World Cup tournament.
- Spain registered its biggest-ever World Cup win with a 7-0 rout of Costa Rica
- In the game against Costa Rica, Spain completed exactly 1,000 passes to become the first team in World Cup history to reach that mark in a 90-minute contest.
- Cameroon Vincent Aboubakar is the second player after Zidane to be sent off after scoring a goal in a World cup match
- At 39 years and 210 days, Daniel Alves became the oldest footballer to play for Brazil at a World Cup. He featured in the game against Cameroon
- At 18 years and 110 days, Spain Gavi became the youngest World Cup goalscorer since Pele in 1958. Gavi scored against Costa Rica
- Japan, with just 17.7% of the ball possession against Spain, became the first team to win a World Cup game with the lowest possession figure
- Kai Havertz became the second player from Germany to score two goals in a single match (against Costa Rica) as a substitute at the World Cup after Andre Schurrle (vs Brazil in 2014)
- Harry Kane became only the second England player to set up (assists) three goals in a World Cup after David Beckham in 2002
- Poland’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny became only the fourth man at the World Cup to save multiple penalties outside of shoot-outs. The other three custodians are – Jan Tomaszewski, Brad Friedel and Iker Casillas
- Lionel Messi claimed an unwanted record of becoming only the second player, after Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), to fail to score two penalties outside of shoot-outs at the World Cup
- Germany’s Jamal Musiala completed 12 dribbles against Costa Rica, the most on record for a teenager in World Cup history, from 1966
- France’s Stephanie Frappart became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup when she was in charge of the match between Germany and Costa Rica
Key numbers
525 – The number of additional stoppage time minutes during the group stage in Qatar
18 – Poland’s Wojciech Szczesny made the most number of saves in the group stage
9 – Most goals scored in the group stage. Both England and Spain scored 9 goals each with the latter scoring 7 in a single game
3 – Most goals by a player during the group stage. (Alvaro Morata of Spain, France’s Kylian Mbappe, England’s Marcus Rashford, Cody Gakpo of the Netherlands and Enner Valencia of Ecuador scored 3 goals each)
48 – The total number of group stage games in Qatar
120 – The total number of goals in the group stage