Top facts from the World Cup

32 teams. 48 games. 122 goals. Almost two weeks of excellent football in the group phase at the World Cup. And the real show is just about to begin, as the playoff phase arrives, with the remaining national teams sharing the same goal – triumph!

Again, we’ve prepared a summary of the most important facts for you, this time from the third round of the group phase. The curse of the champions, the African sorrow, and the uprising in the North. Have fun and follow the statistics of the goals scored by individual types of football shoes.

The patriarch

Aged 45 years and 161 days, Egyptian goalie Essam El-Hadary became the oldest player in the history of World Cups who actually played in a game. This Egyptian magician, now older than three of the managers coaching teams at the current World Cup, even saved a penalty kick in the game against Saudi Arabia.

La Celeste

Thanks to beating Russia 3:0, Uruguay has become the first team since 1998 (when it was Argentina) to win all three games in the group stage without conceding a single goal.

Treaty of non-aggression

The match between France and Denmark was the first goalless game after 37 matches at this World Cup.

The curse of the champions

For the third time in a row, the defending champions failed to qualify for the playoffs. The Germans thus joined the Italian (2010) and Spanish (2014) teams. What a hangover.

African sorrow

For the first time since 1982, no African team made it to the playoffs. The Senegalese team almost succeeded, but was eventually eliminated based on the fair-play rule on the number of yellow cards, leaving Japan to qualify instead.

The statistics of goals scored by individual types of shoes