Random World Cup Facts

Excellent point.

So in real terms, only the 1966 and 2018 tournaments have provided a semi-final line-up where none of the four teams reached the same stage or better in the previous tournament.

 

The Bayern player and Foreign coach records are still going to remain the same.

 

Average height of starting CBs who played the first match of the World Cup group stage.

194.5 Senegal (Kalidou Koulibaly 195, Salif Sane 194)
193.0 Sweden (Andreas Granqvist 192, Pontus Jansson 194)
192.5 Egypt (Ali Gabr 191, Ahmed Hegazi 194)
192.0 Germany (Jerome Boateng 192, Mats Hummels 192)
190.5 Nigeria (Leon Balogun 190, William Troost-Ekong 191)
190.0 Serbia (Nikola Milenkovic 195, Dusko Tosic 185)
189.5 Portugal (Pepe 188, Jose Fonte 191)
189.0 Iceland (Kari Arnason 191, Ragnar Sigurosson 187)
189.0 Russia (Ilya Kutepov 192, Sergei Ignashevich 186)
188.5 Denmark (Simon Kjær 191, Andreas Christensen 186)
188.5 Spain (Gerard Pique 194, Sergio Ramos 183)
188.5 Tunisia (Syam Ben Youssef 189, Yassine Meriah 188)
187.7 Belgium (Toby Alderweireld 186, Dedryck Boyata 188, Jan Vertonghen 189)
187.0 France (Raphael Varane 191, Samuel Umtiti 183)
187.0 Iran (Ramin Rezaeian 185, Rouzbeh Cheshmi 192, Morteza Pouraliganji 184)
186.7 England (Kyle Walker 178, John Stones 188, Harry Maguire 194)
186.5 Saudi Arabia (Osama Hawsawi 188, Omar Hawsawi 185)
186.0 Croatia (Domagoj Vida 184, Dejan Lovren 188)
186.0 Japan (Maya Yoshida 189, Gen Shoji 183)
186.0 Switzerland (Fabian Schar 186, Manuel Akanji 186)
185.7 Morocco (Achraf Hakimi 179, Medhi Benatia 188, Romain Saiss 190)
185.5 Colombia (Davinson Sanchez 187, Oscar Murillo 184)
185.5 South Korea (Jang Hyun-soo 187, Kim Young-gwon 184)
185.0 Argentina (Nicolas Otamendi 181, Marcos Rojo 189)
185.0 Mexico (Hugo Ayala 188, Hector Moreno 182)
185.0 Panama (Roman Torres 188, Fidel Escobar 182)
185.0 Uruguay (Jose Gimenez 185, Diego Godin 185)
184.5 Brazil (Thiago Silva 183, Miranda 186)
182.5 Poland (Thiago Cionek 184, Michal Pazdan 181)
181.0 Costa Rica (Johnny Acosta 176, Oscar Duarte 186)
180.5 Australia (Mark Milligan 178, Trent Sainsbury 183)
180.5 Peru (Alberto Rodriguez 179, Christian Ramos 182)

 

Croatia 2-1 a.e.t. England



Average age, World Cup experience (matches played) ... and total appearances/goals for the starting lineups.
CRO: 29-186 , 70 ... 660 / 92
ENG: 26-039 , 51 ... 294 / 36

Most appearances for Croatia, World Cup + EURO:
20 - Luka Modric
19 - Ivan Rakitic
18 - Darijo Srna, Vedran Corluka
16 - Dario Šimic

Earliest goals in a World Cup semi-final:
1' Arne Nyberg, 1938 Sweden v Hungary
2' Vavá, 1958 Brazil v Sweden
4' Đorđe Vujadinović, 1930 Yugoslavia v Uruguay
5' Kieran Trippier, 2018 England v Croatia
8' Roberto Boninsegna, 1970 Italy v West Germany
9' Garrincha, 1962 Brazil v Chile
9' Andreas Brehme, 1986 West Germany v France

Goals scored by direct free kick in a World Cup semi-final.
Jorge Toro (1962, Chile v Brazil)
Kieran Trippier (2018, England v Croatia)

Since 2002 when 23-player squads were first introduced, this is the first time that all shirt numbers (1 through 23) have scored at least one goal (including own goals) at a single World Cup tournament.
(#12 Kieran Trippier completes the list)

England players to score a direct free kick in World Cup history:
David Beckham, 1998 v Colombia
David Beckham, 2006 v Ecuador
Kieran Trippier, 2018 v Croatia

Clubs whose players have scored the most goals in World Cup 2018:
12 Tottenham Hotspur
11 FC Barcelona
10 Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain
7 Atlético Madrid, Manchester United
5 Manchester City, Villarreal

Teams that played in the most World Cup matches involving extra-time:
11 Germany, Italy
9 Argentina, England

Teams that played three knockout phase matches in the same World Cup that involved extra-time.
Belgium 1986 (v USSR, v Spain, v France)
England 1990 (v Belgium, v Cameroon, v West Germany)
Argentina 2014 (v Switzerland, v Netherlands, v Germany)
Croatia 2018 (v Denmark, v Russia, v England)

Teams that led at halftime of a World Cup semi-final but failed to advance to the final.
Italy 1990 (v Argentina, 1-0 to 1-1 a.e.t. and penalties)
England 2018 (v Croatia, 1-0 to 1-2 a.e.t.)

Least populated countries to reach the World Cup final.
1930 Uruguay (1.9 million inhabitants)
1950 Uruguay (2.4 million)
2018 Croatia (4.3 million)

Most goals scored at World Cup 2018:
14 Belgium
12 Croatia, England
11 Russia
10 France

 

Croatia is in the Final for the first time.

 

Stats for a game from the group stages repeating itself later on on the WC?

Add Belgium-England to the list.

 

West Germany vs Hungary, WC50
Italy vs Poland, WC82
Brazil vs Sweden, WC94
Brazil vs Turkey, WC02
Belgium vs England, WC18

 

Ironically, this is the first come from behind win at the WC semifinals or beyond since France came back against Croatia in WC98.

 

Hungary-W. Germany was WC '54.

Also, Brazil-Czechoslovakia, WC 62.

Germany-Hungary WC 54 is so far the only time the rematch resulted in the loser of the first match winning the second.

 

Thanks for the correction

Only Brazil vs Turkey ended in two wins for the same team.

 

The only two occasions in which the WC final was a repeat of a group match.

This year's Belgium v England third-place match marks the first time that a WC third-place match is a repeat of a group match. Interestingly, Uruguay and Austria, which faced off in the 1954 WC third-place playoff, were in the same group, but didn't actually face each other in the group stage due to a bizarre format in which the top two seeds in each group did not play each other.

 

Bayern Munich and Inter Milan have been represented in the World Cup final since 1982.

(Players in faded parenthesis did not feature in the Final)

Bayern Munich
1982 Paul Breitner, Wolfgang Dremmler, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1986 Lothar Matthäus, Dieter Hoeneß (Norbert Eder, Klaus Augenthaler)
1990 Klaus Augenthaler, Jürgen Kohler, Stefan Reuter (Raimond Aumann, Hans Pflügler, Olaf Thon)
1994 Jorginho
1998 Bixente Lizarazu
2002 Oliver Kahn, Thomas Linke, Jens Jeremies (Carsten Jancker)
2006 Willy Sagnol
2010 Mark van Bommel, Arjen Robben
2014 Manuel Neuer, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Müller, Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos, Mario Götze, Jérôme Boateng
2018 (Corentin Tolisso)

Internazionale
1982 Giuseppe Bergomi, Gabriele Oriali, Alessandro Altobelli (Giampiero Marini, Ivano Bordon)
1986 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
1990 Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann
1994 Nicola Berti
1998 Youri Djorkaeff, Ronaldo
2002 Ronaldo
2006 Marco Materazzi
2010 Wesley Sneijder
2014 Rodrigo Palacio (Hugo Campagnaro, Ricky Álvarez)
2018 (Ivan Perišić / Marcelo Brozović)

 

Wow.

 

If neither the third-place playoff or the final finish goalless, this WC will have featured only a single goalless draw. Excluding the first five WC's from 1930 to 1954, which featured no goalless draws, does anyone if there was any other WC where there was only one goalless draw or none at all?

 

WC94 only had two, South Korea vs Bolivia and the final of course.

 

Somehow I thought it had ended 1-1, but this is correct.

 

Here's a gem:

The last three goalkeepers to lose a World Cup final have all played for Monaco.

Croatia’s Danijel Subasic plays for Monaco. pic.twitter.com/GIERG9UqPw

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 13, 2018

 

That's astounding. The odds have to be a thousand to one for that to happen three times in a row, much less four.

 

To be fair, the players in question played for Monaco some time in their career, not necessarily at the time they lost the final, and two were on loan. Still an interesting connection!

 

I don't think it's a stretch. He might have only had one league appearance, but had seven cup appearances for the team, and was with them for an entire year.

If you think the timing was the issue, you get the same "problem" with Barthez.

 

France might win its second WC title 20 years after their first. How long it took for the other teams that have won at least 2?

Uruguay - 20 years
Germany - 20 years
Argentina - 8 Years
Brazil - 4 years
Italy 4 - years

How long it took to win the third after the second one?

Italy - 44 years
Germany: 16 years
Brazil - 8 years

How long it took to win the fourth one after the third one?

Germany - 24 years
Italy - 24 years
Brazil - 24 years