The 2018 FIFA World Cup was an international men's football tournament, that took place between 14 June and 15 July 2018 in Russia.[1] The competition was structured in the typical round-robin style during the initial group stages, with the top two teams of each group qualifying to the further stages.[2]France[3] and Croatia[4] went to the finals and fought for the championship.
The statistics within the tournament include: goals, assists, scores, wins and losses record, match awards, squad records, disciplinary issues, statistics accumulated over multiple world cups, the overall results and the stadium statistics. Matches that were decided by penalty shoot-outs were counted as draws. Any records set during the 2018 FIFA World Cup covered under the appropriate headings for the specific record.[5]
Goalscorers
There were 169 goals scored in 64 matches, for an average of 2.64 goals per match.
Twelve own goals were scored during the tournament, doubling the record of six set in 1998.[6]
Goals scored from penalty shoot-outs are not counted towards an individual player's goal count.[7]
An assist is awarded for a pass leading directly to a goal.[9] In the 2018 World Cup there were a total of 105 assists, with no outright leader as 16 players had 2 assists in the tournament.
A total of 32 teams reached the 2018 World Cup, including 14 European, 5 South American, 5 African, 3 North American, 5 Asian countries.[78] The 2018 FIFA World Cup had many notable absences of teams including The Netherlands, Italy, Ghana and the United States.[79]
Oldest coach: Óscar TabárezUruguay - 71 years and 104 days in the first game against Egypt, after Otto Rehhagel (71 years and 317 days at the 2010 World Cup), he became the second oldest World Cup coach.[80]
Youngest coach: Aliou CisséSenegal - 42 years and 87 days in the first game against Poland.
Country with most coaches: Argentina with four coaches, alongside Argentina, Egypt, Colombia and Peru are coached by Argentines. This is followed by Spain with three coaches (Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Spain), then Germany, France, Colombia (with the Colombian coaches serving only other teams as in 2014) and Portugal with two coaches each.
Teams with foreign coaches: Twelve teams are trained by foreign coaches, including two teams (Australia and Denmark) of coaches whose home countries (Netherlands and Norway) did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Longest serving coach: As in 2014, the longest serving team coaches of the World Cup are Joachim Löw and Óscar Tabárez, who have been in charge of the German and Uruguayan national teams since 2006. Tabárez, however, was previously coach of Uruguay from 1988 to 1990, while Löw have worked as an assistant coach for Germany since 2004. Besides them, Didier DeschampsFrance, José PékermanColombia and Carlos QueirozIran were at the 2014 World Cup with their current teams and Jorge SampaoliArgentina with Chile and Fernando SantosPortugal with Greece at the 2014 World Cup.
Shortest serving coach: The coach having the shortest time in charge is Fernando HierroSpain, who became in charge only two days before his team's first game. In addition to him were Mladen KrstajićSerbia, Bert van MarwijkAustralia, Akira NishinoJapan and Juan Antonio PizziSaudi Arabia who resumed duty as coach only after the successful qualification of their current teams. Of these, however, van Marwijk had qualified with Saudi Arabia for the World Cup, but then refused to renew his contract.
Oldest player: At 45 years and five months, Essam El HadaryEgypt is the oldest player ever to be nominated for a World Cup finals. By his use in the last group match on June 25, he was 45 years and 161 days, thereby becoming the oldest World Cup player.[81]
Youngest player: Daniel ArzaniAustralia is the youngest player at the age of 19 years and 163 days. He came on in the group match against France in the 84th minute.[82]
Sofyan AmrabatMorocco, who came on as a substitute for his brother Nordin Amrabat in the 76th minute in the group match against Iran, is the first player in World Cup history to come in for his brother.[80]
Aleksandr YerokhinRussia is the first player to feature as the fourth substitute player in a World Cup match - coming on in the 97th minute of extra time in the Round of 16 match against Spain. This match is also the first ever World Cup match in which eight players have been substituted.[83]
30 teams nominated at least one player from the domestic league, but only England exclusively fielded players of its own domestic league.[84] By contrast, Sweden and Senegal nominated only players from foreign leagues.
The most players (129) are active in clubs based in England, the majority of them in the Premier League, with some in the lower leagues. In total 27 of the 32 team squads have players who play in England.
One player each plays in the leagues of Finland, Guinea, Honduras, Norway, Paraguay, Romania, Slovakia and South Africa.
From the leagues of countries that did not qualify for the World Cup, the Italian Serie A have the strongest representation with 58 players.
Discipline
In total, only four players were sent off in the entire tournament, the fewest since 1978.[85]International Football Association Board technical director David Elleray stated a belief that this was due to the introduction of VAR, since players would know that they would not be able to get away with anything under the new system.[86]
A player is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[87]
Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious offences)
Receiving two yellow cards in two matches; yellow cards expire after the completion of the quarter-finals (yellow card suspensions are not carried forward to any other future international matches)
The following suspensions were served during the tournament:
The French national team won the 2018 World Cup, defeating Croatia by a score of 4–2, making it the highest scoring World Cup Final since 1966 when England defeated West Germany 4–2.[88] The third place playoff took place between Belgium and England, with Belgium coming out 2-0 victors.[89]
Team(s) rendered in italics represent(s) the host nation(s). The competition's winning team is rendered in bold. (1) – Total games lost not counted in total games played (total games lost = total games won) (2) – Total number of games drawn (tied) for all teams = Total number of games drawn (tied) ÷ 2 (both teams involved) (3) – As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
Host nation(s) are situated in the region(s) rendered in italics. (1) – Total games lost not counted in total games played (total games lost = total games won) (2) – Total number of games drawn (tied) for all teams = Total number of games drawn (tied) ÷ 2 (both teams involved) (3) – As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
^"Players: Goals scored". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
Ángel Di María
Michy Batshuayi
Roberto Firmino
Juan Cuadrado
Kendall Waston
Milan Badelj
Christian Eriksen
Dele Alli
Benjamin Pavard
Toni Kroos
Alfreð Finnbogason
Karim Ansarifard
Genki Haraguchi
Javier Hernández
Khalid Boutaïb
Victor Moses
Felipe Baloy
André Carrillo
Jan Bednarek
Pepe
Mário Fernandes
Salem Al-Dawsari
Sadio Mané
Aleksandar Kolarov
Kim Young-gwon
Iago Aspas
Ludwig Augustinsson
Josip Drmić
Dylan Bronn
José Giménez
Aziz Behich (against France)
Ahmed Fathy (against Russia)
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