Argentina saw off France on penalties to claim the FIFA World Cup title in the 22nd edition played in Qatar, their third title in the competition’s history and their first since winning it in Mexico back in 1986.
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France on the other side became a victim for the second time of the three FIFA World Cup finals decided on penalties. The concluded edition of the tournament is much like repetition of that of the 1986 edition but we’ll take a look at some of the interesting numbers behind the 64 games on Qatar.
NUMBERS and RECORDS
Qatar are the first host country, in the history of the FIFA World Cup not to record a single point in all of their group games and only the second host country to be eliminated in the first round since South Africa in 2010.
Morocco broke the African semi final jinx as they beat Portugal thanks to a Youssef En-Nesyri’s header to become the first African nation to reach the last four of the tournament.
Achraf Dari of Morocco also became the first African player to score in a FIFA World Cup third place play-off match in the history of the tournament while the defender was only the second African-born player to do so after Eusebio for Portugal in 1966.
Lionel Messi achieved his 26th appearance of the tournament, making him the most featured player in the tournament’s history, overtaking Lothar Matthaus, 25.
Hugo Lloris achieved 20 FIFA World Cup appearances in Qatar, making his the most featured Goalkeeper in the history of the tournament, overtaking Manue Neuer, 19.
172 goals were scored in the just concluded FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar, the most in any edition in the history of the tournament.
Lionel Messi in this edition overtakes both Diego Maradona and Gabriel Batistuta to become Argentina’s leading Goalscorer in the FIFA World Cup finals, with 13.
After playing in only two editions and not even reached his 24th birthday, Kylian Mbappé is France’s all-time leading scorer in the tourney, with 12 goals.
Kylian Mbappé is now the player with most goals in FIFA World Cup final games, adding a hat-trick to his one goal in 2018 to make four, overtaking the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Pelé, Vava and Geoff Hurst, all on three.
Cristiano Ronaldo became the only player to have scored in five different editions of the FIFA World Cup and consecutively following his goal for Portugal in win over Ghana.
23 penalties were awarded in Qatar 2022, the second most in the history of the tournament, behind the 29 awarded in Russia 2018 — five of the awarded penalties were missed, the joint most in the history of the tournament. Same as in 2002 and 2010.
Three penalties were awarded in the final match of this edition, that’s one third of the total penalties awarded in the final of the tournament in history, nine.
Argentina were awarded five penalties in the tournament, more than a nation has been awarded in a single edition of the tournament.
Lionel Messi took five penalties in Qatar 2022 (shout-out excluded), that’s the most a player has played in a single edition of the tournament.
Argentina were awarded penalty in the group stage (twice), quarter final, semi final, and final. It is only the first time in the history of the tournament that a side have been awarded penalties in all these round in a single edition.
44year old Lionel Scaloni is the youngest coach to win the FIFA World Cup title since Cesare Menotti, 39 for Argentina in 1978.
A South American nation has won the FIFA World Cup for the first time since Brazil in Korea/ Japan 2002, bringing an end to the dominance of the European nations.
South America nations have won the two editions of the FIFA World Cup that has been held in Asia.
African nations combined for nine wins (including shout-outs) in this year’s tournament, the most victories the continent have recorded in a single edition of the FIFA World Cup in history.
Asian continent had three nations qualifed from the stage while South Americans had two. It is the first time in history that the Asian continent have had more representative in the round of 16 than South America.
Lionel Messi has won the Golden Ball twice, making him the only player to have done so since the introduction of the award in 1982.
There were five games decided on penalties shoot-outs in Qatar, the most in a single edition of the tournament.
Dominik Livakovic saved four penalties in the shoot-outs, the most by a Goalkeeper in a single edition the history of tournament.
Only two own goals were scored in the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, joint fewest since only one was recorded in the 1994 edition in the USA.
Enzo Fernandez was only the second Argentine player to score an own goal in a FIFA World Cup tournament after Roberto Perfumo first did in Germany, 1974.
Wojciech Szczesny of Poland, Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico and Thibaut Courtois of Belgium all saved a penalty and keep a clean sheet in the same match in Qatar, the most times this happened in a single World Cup tournament since 1966 (when data is available).
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Wojciech Szczesny also saved two non-shootout penalties at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, joining Brad Friedel (2002) as the goalkeeper with the most penalties saved at a World Cup.
Author : Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
