Qatar 2022 - It’s been a scorcher!
FIFA’s experiment produces a thrilling finale
Warning: this article contains spoilers for anyone who hasn’t yet seen the result of the 2022 FIFA World Cup final between France and Argentina, or any result earlier in the competition
Congratulations to Argentina who have won their 3rd men’s World Cup, beating France on penalties following an exhilarating 3–3 final in Qatar
They ended their 36 year wait since their last triumph in 1986. The only team to have waited longer is Italy (between their wins in 1938 and 1982)
This year’s final was the 8th in history, out of 22 finals since 1930, that have gone to extra time (including 3 consecutive finals between 2006 and 2014) and the 3rd to go to penalties
Following the initial controversy in the run up to the competition (something this article won’t be touching on), Qatar has seen it’s fair share of spectacular goals, upsets and questionable refereeing decisions (we also won’t go into those)
But how many records have been broken in this year’s World Cup?
How did this World Cup compare to previous competitions?
There has been 172 goals in this year’s competition, 1 goal ahead of the previous record of 171 goals scored at both France 1998 and Brazil 2014
Despite lots of exciting matches and goals, there was also a lot of draws during the group stages (10), plus a record number of goalless draws in the opening round of matches (4)
This was also expected to be one of the hottest World Cups in history. FIFA moved it to the winter to avoid some of Qatar’s warmest temperatures with an average November in the Gulf of around 26 Degrees Celsius
How well have this year’s finalists done?
Argentina has been one of the more prolific sides throughout the tournament with 15 goals (second only to France, 16)
They had already maintained their record of never having lost a World Cup semi-final, having appeared at this stage (and, therefore, the final) on 5 separate occasions
Lionel Messi has gotten a lot of the plaudits during this competition, having broken a string of records himself. He’s now:
- the only player, for any nation, to score in the Group Stages, Round of 16, Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals and Final
- played more World Cup matches than anyone else (26), a record previously held by Lothar Matthäus (25)
- Argentina’s top scorer at World Cups (13 goals) having overtaken Gabriel Batistuta (10), plus he’s the only Argentina player to have scored in 4 separate World Cup competitions
- the oldest player to have scored 5 goals or more in a men’s World Cup competition (35 years, 155 days). On top of this, he’s both the oldest AND youngest player to score and assist in a single World Cup game, (back when he was 18 years, 357 days, at the 2008 World Cup)
France had won the final four years earlier and were vying to become the third team in history to win back-to-back competitions, following Brazil (1958 and 1962) and Italy (1934 and 1938)
Their striker, Kylian Mbappe, scored a hat-trick in the final, making him the top scorer in the competition with 8 goals, and only the 2nd player ever to score three goals in a final (after Sir Geoff Hurst for England in 1966)
This puts Mbappe’s World Cup goals total at 12 goals (following 4 goals in 2018), which at 23 years old suggests he may be breaking a few more records later in his career (Miroslav Klose holds the all-time record at 16)
While Mbappe got most of the attention, some of his team mates were also breaking records:
- Olivier Giroud broke France’s goal record in all competitions when he scored his 52nd and 53rd goals against Poland and England, respectively (previously held by Thierry Henry, 51)
- Hugo Lloris has made his 145th appearance for France in the final, beating Lilian Thuram’s who held France’s previous record of 143
Which other teams had a good World Cup?
Morocco, who were knocked out by France in the semi-finals, became the most successful African nation in any World Cup as well as the first Arab nation to reach the Semi’s
Two of their star players, Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi, have both now played 10 World Cup games, more than any other Arab player
Croatia, also knocked out at the semi-finals, have been one of the most successful teams in recent World Cup history. They’ve taken part in 6 competitions since becoming an independent nation having come 2nd once and 3rd place twice
Their goalkeeper, Dominik Livakovic, was one of the best keepers of the competition. He made more saves than any other player (24), had the 3rd highest save percentage (79%) and became the first goalkeeper in history to save 4 penalties during shootouts in one competition (Emiliano Martinez also achieved this for Argentina in the final)
Japan won some difficult games and a few records in the process:
- Germany were the first side in history to make over 700 passes in a World Cup and still lose, in their group game vs. Japan
- They shouldn’t feel too bad, though, because this feat happened for a second time when Spain also made over 700 passes in their loss to the Japanese
- Japan also have the record for winning a match with the least possession, having only had the ball for 17.7% of the time vs. Spain
Argentina were also only the 5th team to have reached the final after losing their opening match, where they lost 2–1 to Saudi Arabia (who were the second-lowest ranked team in the competition) with the entire country given a national holiday to celebrate their success
Which teams disappointed?
Warning: plenty of teams underperformed in this World Cup, so this section is rather long…
Qatar 2022 has played host to a lot of upsets. 14 group stage games were won by the team with worse betting odds before the game. Plus if you’d bet £1 on the underdog of every group game, you’d have won almost £50 on a net basis. The next highest in recent history is the 2010 World Cup with 12 upsets and less than £20
This is also the 1st World Cup to have no teams win all three group matches since the 32 team format was introduced in 1998
Brazil had been favourites to win the competition before getting knocked out by Croatia in the Quarter Finals
Despite this, Brazil still hold the record of qualifying for all 22 World Cups and making it past the group stages in 100% of these (they’ve also won the most World Cups, 5)
Belgium were ranked 2nd before the competition and won their 8th consecutive group match in their opening game vs. Canada, a record for any team (following group stage wins in 2010, 2014 and 2018). This is before they crashed out following a defeat to Morocco and a draw to Croatia
One of the most successful teams in tournament history, Germany, failed to win their two opening World Cup matches for the first time since 1938 and did not qualify for the last 16 for their second consecutive tournament
Sadly, football’s not coming home. Despite a lot of pre-match hype, England were knocked out by France in the Quarter Finals. This is the 7th time England have gone out at this stage, more often than any other team. England also has the unenviable record of drawing more games than any other team at World Cup finals (22, Italy is behind them on 21)
Portugal and their talisman, Cristiano Ronaldo, were disappointed to only reach the Quarter Finals, even though this was their best finish since coming fourth in 2006 and their 3rd highest finish (they came 3rd in 1966)
It was one of their lesser known strikers, Goncalo Ramos, who scored a hat-trick in the Round of 16, which looked like it’d be the only one of the competition, until Mbappe in the final
This was the 53rd and 54th hat-trick in World Cup history. The record for the most hat-tricks in an entire World Cup competition was 8 in Switzerland, 1954
Spain started strongly with a 7–0 demolition of Costa Rica, the most goals in a World Cup match since 2010 when Portugal beat North Korea by the same scoreline (the biggest win was Hungary 10–1 El Salvador in 1982)
While Qatar will be happy with how the competition has gone, they may be less happy with their own team’s record:
- this competition was the first time where the host nation was the only team making their World Cup debut
- it was also the first time an Arab nation hosted a World Cup
- however, they became the first host nation to lose their opening game after they lost 2–0 to Ecuador, and went on to lose all of their games
Canada also struggled in their second-ever World Cup competition, being the only other nation to lose all three games and now have the joint-worst record of any team at men’s World Cups following 6 games without a win
What other records were broken?
- Cristiano Ronaldo, despite Portugal’s disappointment, can be proud to have become the first person to score in 5 consecutive men’s World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022). He’s also only the 5th person to have played in 5 World Cups, alongside Lionel Messi, Lothar Matthäus, Antonio Carbajal and Rafael Márquez
- On top of this, Ronaldo is only the second player in history to captain their side at the World Cup without being attached to a club team (the first was Bruce Wilson for Canada in 1986)
- Gavi became Spain’s youngest scorer at a men’s World Cup (18 years 110 days), the only player born in 2004 to score in Qatar and the 3rd youngest player ever after Brazil’s Pele and Mexico’s Manuel Rosas
- Wayne Hennessey, of Wales, became only the third goalkeeper (and the 177th player of any position) to be sent off in a men’s World Cup competition
- England’s Bukayo Saka (21 years, 77 days) became the youngest player to score two or more goals on their World Cup debut since Franz Beckenbauer in 1966 (20 years, 304 days)
- Enner Valencia, has now scored Ecuador’s last 6 World Cup goals after scoring all 3 of their goals in 2014 and then 3 in Qatar, only the fourth player in history to achieve this after Eusebio (Portugal), Paolo Rossi (Italy) and Oleg Salenko (Russia)
- Ghana’s Inaki Williams and Spain’s Nico Williams made history when they became the first full siblings to play for different countries at a World Cup. Kevin-Prince and Jerome Boating both played in 2010, but are only step-brothers
- Portugal’s Pepe became the second oldest outfielder to score at a World Cup (at 39 years old), only behind Roger Milla who scored for Cameroon in 1994 remains the oldest at 42. Egypt’s Essam El-Hadary was the oldest goalkeeper (45 years old at the 2018 World Cup)
- A record number of yellow cards were shown in the Argentina vs. The Netherlands game with 18 shown in total: 16 to players, including two for Denzel Dumfries, one to Argentina’s manager, Lionel Scaloni, and one to their coach, Walter Samuel
And a few other fun facts about the competition…
Stephanie Frappart became the first woman in history to officiate a men’s World Cup match (Germany vs. Costa Rica on 1st Dec)
The official attendance in the final was 88,966, the largest audience at a World Cup final in 28 years (since the 1994 final in the United States, 94,194). The record attendance at a men’s World Cup final was in 1986 in Mexico City (114,600)¹
There was more added time in this year’s World Cup than in any competition before it (not including games that went to extra time):
- Normal time lasted for over 100 minutes in 44 of 64 matches (vs. 90 minutes if no time is added)
- On average, 12 minutes was added per match, equivalent to an additional 8.5 matches-worth of football played across the tournament
- The game with most time added was England’s victory over Iran (27 minutes added across both halves)
And finally, which countries were most dedicated to watching the competition? Well, Pornhub have tried to answer this by analysing the web traffic on their site during the first few weeks of the competition:
- Senegal were the most committed to their team, recording the biggest drop in web traffic during their game vs. The Netherlands (-43% during the match vs. an average day). The next most dedicated supporters were in Serbia (-40%), Brazil (-39%) and Saudi Arabia (-34%)
- Australia was at the opposite end, with a 6% increase in Pornhub visits during their match against France, suggesting they weren’t that interested in their team’s performance
- The United States were the next least committed, with barely any change in traffic compared to a drop of 10%-20% for most other nations
Note¹: Technically, the largest attendance was the 173,850 supporters who watched the 1950 final when Uruguay beat Brazil in the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro. However, this tournament was run as a round robin and while this match was the final round of matches, it technically wasn’t a final
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