SOME CURIOUS STATISTICS FROM QATAR 2022
This is the official roll of honour from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar:
TEAMS
- Winners - Argentina
- Runners-Up - France
- 3rd Place - Croatia
- 4th Place - Morocco
PLAYERS
- Golden Boot - Kylian Mbappe (France), 8 goals
- Player of the Tournament - Lionel Messi (Argentina)
- Best Young Player - Enzo Fernandez (Argentina)
- Best Goalkeeper - Emiliano Martinez (Argentina)
- Fair Play Award - England
And now here are some snippets I gathered from the exhaustive number-crunching of the tournament. There must be many more gems waiting to be discovered and statistics alone tell us little of course - what counts is how we interpret data, and the devil is in the detail...
TEAMS
Youngest Coach - Lionel Scaloni (Argentina), 44
Oldest Coach - Louis Van Gaal (Netherlands), 71
Most Goals Scored - France, 16
Most Goals Conceded - Costa Rica, 11
Fewest Goals Conceded - Tunisia, 1
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| Morocco kept the most clean sheets in Qatar |
Fewest Goals Scored - Belgium, Denmark, Qatar, Tunisia, Wales - 1
Most Clean Sheets - Morocco, 4
Most Shots - France, 102
Fewest Shots - Costa Rica, 12
Most Cards Awarded - Serbia, 26
Fewest Cards Awarded - England & Spain, 7
Most Aerial Duels Won - Canada, 59%
Fewest Aerial Duels Won - Argentina, 10%<
Most Passes - Argentina, 4323
Fewest Passes - Iran, 979
Most Accurate Passers - Spain, 91%
Least Accurate Passers - Iran, 72%
PLAYERS
Fastest Goal - 1 min 9 sec - Alphonso Davies (Canada) v Croatia
Youngest Player - Youssoufa Moukoko (Germany), 18 years, 3 days
Oldest Player - Atiba Hutchinson (Canada), 39 years, 298 days
Youngest Goalscorer - Gavi (Spain), 18, v Costa Rica
Oldest Goalscorer - Pepe (Portugal), 39, v Switzerland
Most Shots - Kylian Mbappe (France), 29
Most Shots on Target - Lionel Messi (Argentina), 13
Most Crosses - Antoine Griezmann, 40
Most Clearances - Romain Saiss (Morocco), 57
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| Spain's Rodri, World Cup passer supreme |
Most Dribbles - Kylian Mbappe (France), 57
Most Saves - Dominic Livakovic (Croatia), 24
Most Passes - Rodri (Spain) 684
Most Touches - Rodri (Spain) 710
Most Tackles Won - Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) & Mateo Kovacic (Croatia), 17
Most Shots per 90 min - Marcus Rashford (England), 7
Qatar 2022
Qatar v Ecuador - Opening Match
(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile