Penalty shoot-outs / Matches with extra time 1978 - 0% (0/1) 1982 - 100% (1/1) 1986 - 75% (3/4) 1990 - 57% (4/7) 1994 - 75% (3/4) 1998 - 75% (3/4) 2002 - 40% (2/5) 2006 - 67% (4/6) 2010 - 50% (2/4) 2014 - 50% (4/8) 2018 - 100% (4/4) 2022 - 100% (5/5) Total - 66% (35/53)
It was first FIFA World Cup championship match played by teams with a loss in the group stage, respectively, since the 1978 edition. 1978 Argentina - Lost to Italy in the first group stage. Netherlands - Lost to Scotland in the first group stage. 2022 Argentina - Lost to Saudi Arabia in the group stage. France - Lost to Tunisia in the group stage.
Messi is now the player with the most World Cup games and minutes surpassing Matthäus. Mbape is now the player with most goals in World Cup finals (four goals) surpassing a four way tie between Pele, Hurst, Vava and Zidane all with three. Also, it looks like the Thurams are the first father and son to both play in World Cup finals. I have not verified that one.
Personal fact. Hopefully this is the first and last World Cup Final that made me late to a Christmas party.
It was mentioned on FOX that Messi is the only player to score in every round of the tournament including the Final.
In 1970 Jairzinho scored in all six of Brazil’s matches including the final. Now there are seven matches en route.
Non-European/South American group stage winners. 1930 United States (2-0-0) 1986 Mexico (2-1-0) 1986 Morocco (1-2-0) 1990 Cameroon (2-0-1) 1994 Mexico (1-1-1) 1994 Nigeria (2-0-1) 1998 Nigeria (2-0-1) 2002 Mexico (2-1-0) 2002 Japan (2-1-0) 2002 South Korea (2-1-0) 2010 United States (1-2-0) 2014 Costa Rica (2-1-0) 2022 Morocco (2-1-0) 2022 Japan (2-0-1)
In the 32 teams world cup era, 4 out of 7 champions came out as the top seed of Group C: France in1998 Brazil in 2002 France in 2018 Argentina in 2022 Just a coincidence or maybe schedule plays some part?
can it be that Alexis Mac Allister is the only player to have appeared in more than 1 match and has won all he featured in at Qatar 2022?
ARG are the first WC winning side since BRA in 2002 to play only one seeded team (i.e., FRA) in the KO stages. (GER were the only seeded team BRA faced in the KO stages in 2002.) The side to accomplish this before BRA in 2002 was.....ARG in 1986, playing West Germany in the Final. ARG were also unseeded in '86, which is interesting. In all the other WCs featuring the 16-team knockout format, each champion has faced two seeded teams in those stages (no winner has played three seeded sides). One could argue that ARG in 2022 had a relatively easy path to the title, similar to that of 1986.
I posted this information regarding the WC winners' opponents in the QFs over 10 years ago, and the trend has continued with the last three WCs.... 1986: ARG (vs ENG, unseeded) 1990: GER (vs CZE, unseeded) 1994: BRA (vs NED, unseeded) 1998: FRA (vs ITA, seeded) 2002: BRA (vs ENG, unseeded) 2006: ITA (vs UKR, unseeded) 2010: ESP (vs PAR, unseeded) 2014: GER (vs FRA, unseeded) 2018: FRA (vs URU, unseeded) 2022: ARG (vs NED, unseeded)
In 1986 Argentina played against Italy in GS, Uruguay in RO16, England in QF and Germany in the final. That's 4 world champions in seven games. Sure, easy.
Pre-tournament seeding is one thing. After all, Qatar were a seeded team. I prefer to argue using in-tournament results. By winning their group, Argentina were guaranteed to face a group runner-up since all Round of 16 matchups feature a group winner v a group runner up. So after Australia, their opponents were... - group winner Netherlands. - group runner-up Croatia, who ousted Brazil in the previous round. - group winner France.