FIFA 2018 World Cup

FIFA 2018 World cup held in Russia has come and gone, it was a tournament to remember with lots of Records broken and new ones being set.

A total number of 64 games were played with lots of shocking results, early exits, late drama; this particular tournament holds the record of being the first in which the VAR will be used in the Mundial.

The Final was between France and Croatia, where the Les Blues beats the Croat to be crowned the World Champions. Belgium came third at the expense of England thus taking home the Bronze medal which happens to be their best finish in World cup Finals.

After the Final awards were given to the standout players in the tournament.

Croatia Captain Luka Modric won the golden ball which is the best player of the tournament after a disappointing final as Eden Hazard and Antoine Griezmann came second and third respectively.

Harry Kane went home with the Golden Boot Award for emerging the highest goals scorer in the tournament with six goals.

France teenager forward Kylian Mbappe was named as the best young player of the competition while Thibaut Courtois emerged the best goalkeeper picking the Golden Glove Award.

The La Furia Roja also went home with the Fair Play awards.

With the help of Opta stats here are the statistics and records set and broken in this just concluded FIFA World Cup.

TOURNAMENT STATS

July 1, 2018 was just the second day in which two World Cup games (Spain v Russia, Croatia v Denmark) both went to a penalty shoot-out - the other was June 21, 1986 (France v Brazil, Mexico v Germany).

This was the first ever World Cup to see all competing teams score at least two goals, with Panama being the final team to complete the collection (a goal each against England and Tunisia).

43 per cent of the goals scored at the 2018 World Cup came from set-piece situations (73 of 169), more than at any other edition of the competition since 1966.

There were 22 penalties scored at the 2018 World Cup, the most in any edition of the competition. There were nine winning goals scored in the 90th minute or later at the 2018 World Cup (excluding extra-time), more than at any other edition of the tournament.

PLAYER FACTS

Portugal talisman Cristiano Ronaldo is just the fourth player to score in four different World Cup tournaments (2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018) after Pele, Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose. Ronaldo became the first European player in history to score in eight consecutive major tournaments (World Cup and European Championships).

Since 1966, only Grzegorz Lato & Andrzej Szarmach (5 for Poland) and Michael Ballack & Miroslav Klose (5 for Germany) have combined for more World Cup goals than Edinson Cavani & Luis Suarez (4 for Uruguay).

Mexico's Rafael Marquez (39y 139d) became the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup knockout match since Stanley Matthews (39y 145d), in 1954 for England v Uruguay.

Essam El-Hadary (45y 161d) broke the record for the oldest player to appear at a World Cup, with the Egyptian goalkeeper aged two years & 158 days older than Colombian Faryd Mondragón, who previously held the record. He also saved a penalty in this match for Egypt.

Against Argentina in the round of 16, France's Kylian Mbappe became the first teenager to score at least twice in a World Cup match since Pele netted twice for Brazil against Sweden in the 1958 final.

MANAGER FACTS

Oscar Tabarez became the fifth manager to take charge of the same country at four different World Cup finals (1990, 2010, 2014 and 2018), after Walter Winterbottom (England), Josef Herberger (West Germany), Helmut Schon (West Germany) and Lajos Baroti (Hungary).

Didier Deschamps is the third person to win the World Cup as both a player and a manager, after Brazil's Mario Zagallo and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer.

In his first World Cup as manager of Belgium, Roberto Martinez oversaw six wins from seven games; only Luis Felipe Scolari won more matches in his first World Cup as a manager (7 in 2002) than the Spaniard.

23 managers took charge of their first World Cup games at the 2018 tournament, with Croatia's Zlatko Dalic registering the highest finish among this group (runners-up).

Joachim Low became the third consecutive manager of the reigning World Cup champions to see his side eliminated in the group stage, following Vicente Del Bosque in 2014 (Spain) and Marcelo Lippi in 2010 (Italy).

TEAM FACTS

Russia's victory against Saudi Arabia means that the host nation has never lost their opening match in any of the 21 editions of the FIFA World Cup (W16 D6 L0).

In their match against Japan, Belgium became the first team to come from 2+ goals down to win a World Cup knockout round match within 90 minutes since Portugal beat North Korea 5-3 in the 1966 quarter-final.

Mexico have now been eliminated in each of their last eight World Cup knockout matches - the longest ever streak of consecutive knockout eliminations in the competition (QF 1986 + last 16 1994 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 & 2018).

Switzerland have never won a World Cup knockout match; suffering elimination in all seven matches, including their last four round of 16 games (in 1994, 2006, 2014 and 2018).

Croatia became just the second side to progress on a penalty shoot-out in consecutive knockout games in a World Cup tournament after Argentina in 1990 (v Yugoslavia and Italy).

Brazil have been eliminated by a European nation in each of the last four editions of the World Cup (France 2006, Netherlands 2010, Germany 2014 and Belgium 2018).

THE FINAL

Kylian Mbappé (19y 207d) is the second youngest player to score in a World Cup final, after Pele for Brazil in 1958 (17y 249d).

Mario Mandzukic became the first ever player to score an own goal in a World Cup final.

Mandzukic is only the second player in World Cup history to score a goal for his team and an own goal in the same match, after the Netherlands' Ernie Brandts against Italy in 1978.

France became the first team to score four goals in a World Cup final since Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in 1970. This was the highest-scoring World Cup final since England beat West Germany 4-2 back in 1966.

Croatia are the first team to lose in their first ever appearance in a World Cup final since the Netherlands in 1974 (1-2 vs West Germany).

The next world cup will be in Qatar in 2022.

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