IFFHS STATISTICS - WORLD CUP 2022 DAY 13
The statistics on 2022 World Cup day 13 (2 December)
*This World Cup edition is the 1st to see no team winning all 3 of their group games since 1994 (where 24 teams competed in 6 groups) and the 4th such in the history (also the editions of 1958 and 1962, with 16 teams and 4 groups).
*The 2022 World Cup had the fewest red cards in the (first) group stage, just 2 in 48 games, since 1978 (2 in 24 games).
*Only 5 teams (Netherlands, England, USA, Morocco, Croatia) avoided defeats in the group stage of 2022 World Cup, much fewer than at any other edition since 1998 when the format was extended to the current one with 32 teams and 8 groups.
In 1998 and 2002 there were 12 undefeated teams, in 2006 – 11, in 2010, 2014 and 2018 – 9.
*For the first time in the entire history of the World Cup, all 6 football continents have representatives in the round of 16 (Europe 9, South America 2, Asia 2, Africa 2, North America 1, Australia 1).
*Uruguay (despite beating Ghana 2-0) have failed to qualify for the playoff stages at the World Cup for the first time since 2002; before the edition of 2022 they had won 5 consecutive group games.
*Ghana became the only team to miss 2 penalties against the same opponent (Uruguay) at the World Cup, excluding shoot-outs. Asamoah Gyan missed one in 2010 (hit the crossbar) and Andrew Ayew in 2022 (stopped by goalkeeper).
*Edinson Cavani set the new record on most games for Uruguay in World Cups (17), ahead of Muslera, Godín and Luis Suárez (all 16).
*Paulo Bento, a Portuguese coach of South Korea, became the 6th coach in the World Cup history to defeat his native country (2-1), after Otto Glória in 1966 (for Portugal vs Brazil), Ernst Happel in 1978 (for Netherlands vs Austria), Sepp Piontek in 1986 (for Denmark vs Germany),
Bruno Metsu in 2002 (for Senegal vs France) and Milovan Rajevac in 2010 (for Ghana vs Serbia).
*South Korea have scored 4 of their last 7 goals at the World Cup in the 90th minute or later of the second half.
*In the game Switzerland vs Serbia (3-2), 11 yellow cards were shown (4 and 7 resp.), the most in a World Cup match since the 2010 final Spain vs Netherlands (12 in 120 minutes).
*The game Switzerland vs Serbia was also the first at World Cup with each side scoring 2+ goals before half-time since England vs Argentina (2-2) in 1998.
*Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland) became the 3rd player to score at each of the last three World Cup editions, after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
*Shaqiri is the 12th player to score against the same opponent in 2 different editions of the World Cup (2018, 2022) and the 2nd to do it against Yugoslavia/Serbia, after Helmut Rahn who did it for Germany in 1954 and 1958.
*Rubén Vargas (Switzerland) became the 2nd player to give a back-heel assist at 2022 World Cup, after César Montes (Mexico).
There were 2 such assists also at 2018 edition (M'Baye Niang for Senegal and Adrien Silva for Portugal) and at 2014 (Juan Cuadrado for Colombia and Asamoah Gyan for Ghana).
*Cameroon is the only African team that managed to defeat Brazil and has already done it twice, at 2003 Confederations Cup and now at 2022 World Cup (1-0).
*Brazil have won all 7 games against African teams in the World Cups and have not lost a group stage game of the World Cup since 1998 (1-2 vs Norway) before this defeat.
*Brazil have made 9 changes to their starting lineup for the game vs Cameroon, their most between games at a single World Cup since 1966 (also 9 for the game against Portugal).
*Daniel Alves became the oldest player (39 years 210 days) to ever appear in a World Cup game for Brazil, surpassing Thiago Silva (38 years 67 days).
*Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) is the 1st player to score and be sent off in the same World Cup match since Zinedine Zidane (in the 2006 final vs Italy).