Football World Cup 2018 / Statistics

This article gives an overview of the records and statistics for the 2018 World Cup . Club-related data are as of the end of the 2017/2018 season.

player

• Rafael Márquez (Mexico) took part in the World Cup for the fifth time, setting the record for compatriot Antonio Carbajal and Lothar Matthäus . Márquez now also holds the record with the longest time span between his first and last World Cup game at 16 years and 29 days (previously Carbajal at 16 years and 25 days).
• At 45 years and five months, Essam El-Hadary (Egypt) is the oldest player ever to have been nominated for a World Cup finals. By playing in the last group game on June 25, he became the oldest World Cup player at the age of 45 and 161 days.
• Daniel Arzani (Australia) was the youngest participant at 19 years and 163 days. He was substituted on in the game against France in the 84th minute.
• Sofyan Amrabat (Morocco), who came on for his brother Nordin in the 76th minute of the game against Iran , is the first player in World Cup history to come on for his brother.
• 30 teams nominated at least one player from the domestic league, but only England nominated players from the domestic league. In contrast, Sweden and Senegal only nominated players from foreign leagues. The following table summarizes the number of players in the domestic league and in foreign leagues of the various continental associations for each squad (as of before the World Cup). So played z. B. 15 players from the German team in the Bundesliga, eight in other European leagues. No player is playing in the Oceanic Confederation area. Iceland, Nigeria and Panama nominated the most players from different countries (including their own league) - 13 each.

	Africa	Asia and Australia	Europe	North and Central America	South America	homeland
England						23
Russia			2			21st
Saudi Arabia			3			20th
Spain			6th			17th
Germany			8th			15th
South Korea		5	5			13
France			14th			9
Iran		2	12			9
Egypt		4th	10	1		8th
Japan			14th	1		8th
Mexico			12	3		8th
Costa Rica			10	6th	1	6th
Portugal		1	16			6th
Tunisia	2	5	10			6th
Peru			5	9	4th	5
Argentina		1	17th	1		4th
Poland			19th			4th
Australia		4th	16			3
Brazil		1	19th			3
Denmark			20th			3
Colombia			14th	2	4th	3
Serbia			20th			3
Croatia			21st			2
Morocco		1	20th			2
Panama			5	12	4th	2
Uruguay			14th	2	5	2
Belgium		2	20th			1
Iceland			22nd			1
Nigeria	1	2	19th			1
Switzerland			22nd			1
Sweden		1	21st	1
Senegal	1		22nd

• Most of the players (108) worked for clubs in England, most of them in the Premier League , some in lower-class leagues. In 27 squads there were players who played in England.
• One player each played in Finland, Guinea, Honduras, Norway, Paraguay, Romania, Slovakia and South Africa.
• Of the countries that did not qualify, Serie A and B were the strongest in Italy with 52 players.

Trainer

• Oldest coach: Óscar Tabárez (Uruguay) - 71 years and 104 days in the first game against Egypt, making it the second oldest coach after Otto Rehhagel (71 years and 317 days at the 2010 World Cup)
• Youngest coach: Aliou Cissé (Senegal) - 42 years and 87 days in the first game against Poland
• Most of the coaches came from Argentina, in addition to the Argentine team, Egypt, Colombia and Peru were coached by Argentines. This was followed by Spain with three coaches (Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Spain), Germany, France, Portugal and Colombia with two coaches each, with the Colombian coaches only looking after other teams.
• Twelve teams were coached by foreign coaches, two of them (Australia and Denmark) by coaches whose home countries (Netherlands and Norway) did not qualify for the World Cup.
• As in 2014, the longest-serving team bosses at the World Cup were Joachim Löw and Óscar Tabárez, who have been responsible for the German and Uruguayan teams since 2006. Tabárez was, however, coach of Uruguay from 1988 to 1990, while Löw had already worked as an assistant coach for the German team from 2004. Alongside them, Didier Deschamps (France), José Pékerman (coach of Colombia) and Carlos Queiroz (coach of Iran) were at the 2014 World Cup with their current teams, as well as Jorge Sampaoli (Argentina) with Chile and Fernando Santos with Greece at the 2014 World Cup with it.
• The shortest in office was Fernando Hierro (Spain), who became his team's coach two days before his team's first game. In addition to him, Mladen Krstajić (Serbia), Bert van Marwijk (coach of Australia) Akira Nishino (Japan) and Juan Antonio Pizzi (coach of Saudi Arabia) only coached their current teams after the successful qualification. Of these, however, van Marwijk qualified for the World Cup with Saudi Arabia, but did not renew his contract afterwards. For Hierro, his tenure ended with the round of 16.
• A coach (Didier Deschamps / 1998) was able to become world champion as a player. He led France to another World Cup title and is therefore the third person after Mário Zagallo (Brazil, 1958/1970) and Franz Beckenbauer (Germany, 1974/1990) to achieve this success as a player and as a coach or team boss. Besides him, Aliou Cissé (2002), Gareth Southgate (England / 1998), Óscar Ramírez (Costa Rica / 1990), Adam Nawałka (Poland / 1978), Stanislaw Tschertschessow (Russia / 1994 and without involvement in 2002) and Mladen Krstajić ( Serbia / 2006 with Serbia & Montenegro) took part in a World Cup final as a player.
• Two coaches have already won a continental championship with their team: Óscar Tabárez (Uruguay / Copa América 2011 ) and Fernando Santos (Portugal / Euro 2016 ). In addition, Hervé Renard (coach of Morocco) won the African championship with Zambia and Ivory Coast , Juan Antonio Pizzi won the Copa America Centenario 2016 with Chile and Jorge Sampaoli also won the Copa America 2015 with Chile .

Gates

• First goalscorer: Yuri Gasinsky (Russia) in the 12th minute of the opening game ().
• Last goalscorer: Mario Mandžukić (Croatia) in the 69th minute of the final.
• First joker goal: Denis Cheryshev (Russia) - 19 minutes after being substituted on in the opening game (first joker goal in an opening game).
• Fastest joker goal: Artjom Dsyuba (Russia) - 1 minute after being substituted on in the 70th minute in the opening game.
• First own goal: Aziz Bouhaddouz (Morocco) - 5th minute of added time in the group game against Iran.
• First penalty: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - 4th minute of the group game against Spain.
• First penalty missed: Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 64th minute of the group game against Iceland.
• Earliest goal: Zanka (Denmark) - 55 seconds in the round of 16 against Croatia (13th in the list of fastest World Cup goals).
• Latest goal in regular time: Neymar (Brazil) - 90 + 7 minutes in the group game against Costa Rica (latest goal in World Cup history in a game without extra time).
• Youngest goalscorer: Kylian Mbappé (France) at 19 years and 183 days - in the group game against Peru.
• Oldest goalscorer: Felipe Baloy (Panama) at 37 years and 120 days - in the group game against England.
• Fastest equalizer goal: Mario Mandžukić (Croatia) scored the goal to equalize 1-1 in 3 minutes and 39 seconds, two minutes and 44 seconds after the 0-1 in the round of 16 against Denmark - by Zanka .
• Most goals in a game: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) in the game against Spain and Harry Kane (England) in the game against Panama - 3 goals each.
• Most goals as a joker: Denis Tscheryschew (Russia) - 2 goals, both in the opening game (no other player scored as a joker more than once across all games).
• Most goal-scoring games:
  • 7 goals: Belgium 5-2 Tunisia (preliminary round, Group G); England – Panama 6: 1 (preliminary round, Group G); France 4: 3 Argentina (round of 16)
  • 6 goals: Portugal 3–3 Spain (preliminary round, Group B); France 4-2 Croatia (final)
  • 5 goals: Russia 5-0 Saudi Arabia (preliminary round, Group A); Belgium 3-2 Japan (round of 16)
• Most goals in the entire competition (including qualification): Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - a total of 19 goals.
• 100th goal of the tournament: Lionel Messi (Argentina) in the 14th minute of the third group match against Nigeria.
• Hit from the greatest distance: With a length of approx. 27.6 meters, Angel Di Marias equalized 1: 1 for Argentina in the round of 16 against France, the goal scored from the greatest distance at the 2018 World Cup.
• The top scorer of the two previous World Cups ( Thomas Müller for Germany and James Rodríguez for Colombia) were eliminated from the tournament without another goal of their own.
• Top scorer Harry Kane scored his last goal in the round of 16 and remained without another goal for the rest of the tournament. However, five goals scored in the preliminary round were enough to put themselves at the top of the top scorer list. Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku , who were also well placed with four goals , only scored in the group stage.
• Kane scored three times from the penalty spot and one more time on penalties against Colombia. With four penalty kicks converted and no missed shot, he is also the safest penalty taker in the tournament.
• The English team reached fourth place without having scored a single goal from the game in the knockout round; all three goals came from standards.
• Two goals in the game for third place represent the worst result since 1974. In all subsequent tournaments, at least three goals were scored in the "small final".
• With six goals, the final was the final with the highest number of goals since 1966 (England versus Germany, 4: 2 a.s.) and is only topped in this respect by the 1958 final with seven goals (Sweden versus Brazil, 2: 5). Six goals were also scored in the finals in 1930 and 1938.
• Mario Mandžukić is the first player ever to score an own goal in a World Cup final. This makes him the first player ever to score for both teams in a final.

Goal scorers

The order of the individual players is essentially based on the criteria of FIFA for the “Golden Shoe” .

rank	player	Goals (including penalty )	templates	Playing time in minutes
01	Harry Kane	6 (3)	0	573
02	Antoine Griezmann	4 (3)	2	570
03	Romelu Lukaku	4 (0)	1	476
04th	Denis Cheryshev	4 (0)	0	304
05	Cristiano Ronaldo	4 (1)	0	360
06th	Kylian Mbappé	4 (0)	0	534
07th	Artyom Djuba	3 (1)	1	254
08th	Eden Hazard	3 (1)	2	518
09	Mario Mandžukić	3 (0)	1	608
10	Ivan Perišić	3 (0)	1	632
11	Yerry Mina	3 (0)	0	300
12	Diego Costa	3 (0)	0	320
13	Edinson Cavani	3 (0)	0	343
14th	Wahbi Khazri	2 (0)	2	264
15th	Philippe Coutinho	2 (0)	2	436
16	Takashi Inui	2 (0)	1	292
17th	Luis Suarez	2 (0)	1	450
	Neymar	2 (0)	1	450
19th	Luka Modrić	2 (1)	1	694
20th	Sergio Aguero	2 (0)	0	178
21st	Mohamed Salah	2 (1)	0	180
22nd	Ahmed Musa	2 (0)	0	207
23	Mile Jedinak	2 (2)	0	270
	Heung-Min Son	2 (0)	0	270
25th	Andreas Granqvist	2 (2)	0	450
26th	John Stones	2 (0)	0	645
27	Juan Quintero	1 (0)	2	310
28	Lionel Messi	1 (0)	2	360
29	Alexander Golovin	1 (0)	2	402
30th	Thomas Meunier	1 (0)	2	450
31	Kevin De Bruyne	1 (0)	2	540
32	Keisuke Honda	1 (0)	1	47
33	Milan Badelj	1 (0)	1	103
34	Paolo Guerrero	1 (0)	1	208
35	Marco Reus	1 (0)	1	210
36	Marcos Rojo	1 (0)	1	225
37	Shinji Kagawa	1 (1)	1	232
38	M'Baye Niang	1 (0)	1	247
39	Gabriel Mercado	1 (0)	1	270
	Victor Moses	1 (1)	1	270
41	Dries Mertens	1 (0)	1	298
42	Hirving Lozano	1 (0)	1	317
43	Nacer Chadli	1 (0)	1	327
44	Chicharito	1 (0)	1	330
45	Juan Cuadrado	1 (0)	1	331
46	Xherdan Shaqiri	1 (0)	1	351
47	Christian Eriksen	1 (0)	1	390
48	Ola Toivonen	1 (0)	1	400
49	Mário Fernandes	1 (0)	1	472
50	Jesse Lingard	1 (0)	1	527
51	Kieran Trippier	1 (0)	1	580
52	Domagoj Vida	1 (0)	1	630
53	Harry Maguire	1 (0)	1	645
54	Youssef en-Nesyri	1 (0)	0	18th
55	Felipe Baloy	1 (0)	0	21st
56	Renato Augusto	1 (0)	0	50
57	Iago Aspas	1 (0)	0	69
58	Roberto Firmino	1 (0)	0	82
59	Adnan Januzaj	1 (0)	0	86
60	Kendall Waston	1 (0)	0	90
61	Josip Drmić	1 (0)	0	112
62	Michy Batshuayi	1 (0)	0	113
63	Dylan Bronn	1 (0)	0	114
64	Ricardo Quaresma	1 (0)	0	116
65	Khalid Boutaïb	1 (0)	0	141
66	Nacho	1 (0)	0	160
67	Karim Ansarifard	1 (1)	0	178
68	Ferjani Sassi	1 (1)	0	194
69	Moussa Wagué	1 (0)	0	196
70	Zanka	1 (0)	0	219
71	Jan Bednarek	1 (0)	0	225
72	Ángel Di María	1 (0)	0	237
73	Genki Haraguchi	1 (0)	0	246
74	Steven Zuber	1 (0)	0	252
75	André Carrillo	1 (0)	0	259
76	Alfreð Finnbogason	1 (0)	0	264
77	Yuri Gasinsky	1 (0)	0	266
78	Aleksandar Mitrovic	1 (0)	0	268
79	Yussuf Poulsen	1 (0)	0	269
80	Aleksandar Kolarov	1 (0)	0	270
	Fakhreddine Ben Youssef	1 (0)	0	270
	Grzegorz Krychowiak	1 (0)	0	270
	Gylfi Sigurðsson	1 (1)	0	270
	Young-gwon Kim	1 (0)	0	270
	Sadio Mané	1 (0)	0	270
	Salem Al-Dawsari	1 (0)	0	270
	Salman Al-Faraj	1 (1)	0	270
	Toni Kroos	1 (0)	0	270
89	Yūya Ōsako	1 (0)	0	308
90	Carlos Vela	1 (1)	0	315
91	Marouane Fellaini	1 (0)	0	316
92	Blerim Džemaili	1 (0)	0	326
93	Andrej Kramarić	1 (0)	0	333
94	Paulinho	1 (0)	0	354
95	Granite Xhaka	1 (0)	0	360
	José María Giménez	1 (0)	0	360
	Pepe	1 (0)	0	360
98	Dele Alli	1 (0)	0	364
99	Falcao	1 (0)	0	377
100	Isco	1 (0)	0	390
101	Emil Forsberg	1 (0)	0	417
102	Ludwig Augustinsson	1 (0)	0	450
	Thiago Silva	1 (0)	0	450
104	Paul Pogba	1 (0)	0	539
105	Benjamin Pavard	1 (0)	0	540
	Jan Vertonghen	1 (0)	0	540
	Samuel Umtiti	1 (0)	0	540
108	Ante Rebić	1 (0)	0	547
109	Raphael Varane	1 (0)	0	630
110	Ivan Rakitić	1 (0)	0	639
Final score

Own goals

•  Aziz Bouhaddouz against Iran to the 0-1 final score
•  Aziz Behich against France for the 1: 2 final result
•  Oghenekaro Etebo against Croatia to 0: 1 (final score 0: 2)
•  Thiago Cionek against Senegal to 0: 1 (final score 1: 2)
•  Ahmed Fathy against Russia to 0: 1 (final score 1: 3)
•  Denis Tscheryschew against Uruguay to 0: 2 (final score 0: 3)
•  Edson Álvarez against Sweden to the 0: 3 final result
•  Yann Sommer against Costa Rica to make it 2-2
•  Yassine Meriah against Panama to 0: 1 (final score 2: 1); 50th own goal in World Cup history
•  Sergei Ignaschewitsch against Spain to 0: 1 (final score 1: 1 n.V., 4: 3 pi.)
•  Fernandinho against Belgium to 0: 1 (final score 1: 2)
•  Mario Mandžukić against France to 0: 1 (final score 2: 4)

Missed penalties

Penalties awarded during the game that were not converted.

•  Christian Cueva versus Denmark
•  Lionel Messi versus Iceland
•  Gylfi Sigurðsson versus Nigeria
•  Fahad Al-Muwallad versus Egypt
•  Cristiano Ronaldo versus Iran
•  Bryan Ruiz versus Switzerland
•  Luka Modrić against Denmark

Man of the Match

Man of the game	Lot	Man of the game	Lot	Man of the game	Lot
Group stage
Matchday 1		Matchday 2		Matchday 3
Denis Cheryshev (RUS) (1)	5-0	Denis Cheryshev (RUS) (2)	3: 1	Luis Suárez (URY) (2)	3-0
Mohamed El-Shenawy (EGY)	0: 1	Luis Suárez (URY) (1)	1-0	Mohamed Salah (EGY)	2: 1
Amine Harit (MAR)	0: 1	Cristiano Ronaldo (PRT) (2)	1-0	Ricardo Quaresma (PRT)	1: 1
Cristiano Ronaldo (PRT) (1)	3: 3	Diego Costa (ESP)	0: 1	Isco (ESP)	2: 2
Antoine Griezmann (FRA) (1)	2: 1	Christian Eriksen (DEN)	1: 1	N'Golo Kanté (FRA)	0-0
Yussuf Poulsen (DEN)	0: 1	Kylian Mbappé (FRA) (1)	1-0	André Carrillo (PER)	0: 2
Hannes Þór Halldórsson (ISL)	1: 1	Luka Modrić (HRV) (2)	0: 3	Lionel Messi (ARG)	1: 2
Luka Modrić (HRV) (1)	2-0	Ahmed Musa (NGA)	2-0	Milan Badelj (HRV)	1: 2
Aleksandar Kolarov (SRB)	0: 1	Philippe Coutinho (BRA) (2)	2-0	Paulinho (BRA)	0: 2
Philippe Coutinho (BRA) (1)	1: 1	Xherdan Shaqiri (CHE)	1: 2	Blerim Džemaili (CHE)	2: 2
Hirving Lozano (MEX)	0: 1	Chicharito (MEX)	1: 2	Jo Hyeon-woo (KOR)	2-0
Andreas Granqvist (SWE)	1-0	Marco Reus (GER)	2: 1	Ludwig Augustinsson (SWE)	0: 3
Romelu Lukaku (BEL)	3-0	Eden Hazard (BEL) (1)	5: 2	Adnan Januzaj (BEL)	0: 1
Harry Kane (ENG) (1)	1: 2	Harry Kane (ENG) (2)	6: 1	F. Ben Youssef (DO)	1: 2
Yūya Ōsako (JPN)	1: 2	Sadio Mané (SEN)	2: 2	Jan Bednarek (POL)	0: 1
M'Baye Niang (SEN)	1: 2	James Rodríguez (COL)	0: 3	Yerry Mina (COL)	0: 1
Final round
Round of 16		Kylian Mbappé (FRA) (2)	4: 3	Neymar (BRA)	2-0
		Edinson Cavani (URY)	2: 1	Eden Hazard (BEL) (2)	3: 2
		Igor Akinfejew (RUS)	3: 4 i. E. 1	Emil Forsberg (SWE)	1-0
		Kasper Schmeichel (DEN)	3: 2 i. E. 2	Harry Kane (ENG) (3)	3: 4 i. E. 3
Quarter finals		Antoine Griezmann (FRA) (2)	0: 2	Jordan Pickford (ENG)	0: 2
		Kevin de Bruyne (BEL)	1: 2	Luka Modrić (HRV) (3)	3: 4 i. E. 4
Semifinals		Samuel Umtiti (FRA)	1-0	Ivan Perišić (HRV)	2: 1 i. V. 5
3rd place match		Eden Hazard (BEL) (3)	2-0
final		Antoine Griezmann (FRA) (3)	4: 2

• (Number) = number of awards for more than one.

¹ Spain - Russia (1: 1 a.s. (1: 1, 1: 1), 3: 4 p.

² Croatia - Denmark (1: 1 n.v. (1: 1, 1: 1), 3: 2 p.

³ Colombia - England (1: 1 a.s. (1: 1, 0: 0), 3: 4 p.

^4th Russia - Croatia (2: 2 a.s. (1: 1, 1: 1), 3: 4 p.

⁵ Croatia - England (2: 1 aet (1: 1, 0: 1))

Unofficial overall table

FIFA does not maintain an official overall table. The table can be sorted manually according to the various criteria. Games that have been decided on penalties will be counted as a tie. This table is sorted according to the number of laps and the mode of group placement .

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points				FP	group
1.	France	7th	6th	1	0	014: 600	+8	19th	11	0	0	11	C 1
2.	Croatia	7th	4th	2	1	014: 900	+5	14th	15th	0	0	15th	D 1
3.	Belgium	7th	6th	0	1	016: 600	+10	18th	11	0	0	11	G 1
4th	England	7th	3	1	3	012: 800	+4	10	8th	0	0	8th	G 2
5.	Uruguay	5	4th	0	1	007: 300	+4	12	3	0	0	3	A 1
6th	Brazil	5	3	1	1	008: 300	+5	10	7th	0	0	7th	E 1
7th	Sweden	5	3	0	2	006: 400	+2	09	8th	0	0	8th	F 1
8th.	Russia	5	2	2	1	011: 700	+4	08th	6th	1	0	9	A 2
9.	Colombia	4th	2	1	1	006: 300	+3	07th	9	0	1	13	H 1
10.	Spain	4th	1	3	0	007: 600	+1	06th	2	0	0	2	B 1
11.	Denmark	4th	1	3	0	003: 200	+1	06th	6th	0	0	6th	C 2
12.	Mexico	4th	2	0	2	003: 600	−3	06th	9	0	0	9	F 2
13.	Portugal	4th	1	2	1	006: 600	± 0	05	7th	0	0	7th	B 2
14th	Switzerland	4th	1	2	1	005: 500	± 0	05	9	0	1	13	E 2
15th	Japan	4th	1	1	2	006: 700	−1	04th	5	0	0	5	H 2
16.	Argentina	4th	1	1	2	006: 900	−3	04th	11	0	0	11	D 2
17th	Senegal	3	1	1	1	004: 400	± 0	04th	6th	0	0	6th	H 3
18th	Iran	3	1	1	1	002: 200	± 0	04th	7th	0	0	7th	B 3
19th	South Korea	3	1	0	2	003: 300	± 0	03	10	0	0	10	F 3
20th	Peru	3	1	0	2	002: 200	± 0	03	5	0	0	5	C 3
21st	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	003: 400	−1	03	4th	0	0	4th	D 3
22nd	Germany	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03	2	1	0	5	F 4
23.	Serbia	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03	9	0	0	9	E 3
24.	Tunisia	3	1	0	2	005: 800	−3	03	4th	0	0	4th	G 3
25th	Poland	3	1	0	2	002: 500	−3	03	3	0	0	3	H 4
26th	Saudi Arabia	3	1	0	2	002: 700	−5	03	1	0	0	1	A 3
27.	Morocco	3	0	1	2	002: 400	−2	01	8th	0	0	8th	B 4
28.	Iceland	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01	3	0	0	3	D 4
29	Costa Rica	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01	6th	0	0	6th	E 4
30th	Australia	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01	7th	0	0	7th	C 4
31.	Egypt	3	0	0	3	002: 600	−4	00	5	0	0	5	A 4
32.	Panama	3	0	0	3	002:110	−9	00	11	0	0	11	G 4
									218	2	2	232

	World Champion
	finalist
	Third
	Fourth
	Out in the quarterfinals
	Out in the round of 16
	Out in the preliminary round

A 1	Placement in the group
Fair play rating (FP):
	1 point each
	3 points each; first yellow card is included here
	4 points each

References

• Carlos Sánchez (Colombia) received the first red card in the 3rd minute of the first group game against Japan for deliberate handball in the penalty area to prevent a goal.

Blocking on the basis of cards

Any player who was sent off with or was suspended for the next game and had to face further disciplinary penalties. Any player who received a warning ( ) in two different games within the tournament was banned from the tournament game following the second warning. If there was only one warning at the end of the quarter-finals, it was canceled - the player "goes to the semi-finals unencumbered".

player	Offense	In-game suspension
Saeid Ezatolahi	in the World Cup qualifier against South Korea on August 31, 2017	Group B vs. Morocco
Carlos Sánchez	in group H vs. Japan	Group H vs. Poland
Yussuf Poulsen	in group C against Peru in group C against Australia	Group C vs. France
Marcelo Brozović	in group D against Nigeria in group D against Argentina	Group D vs. Iceland
Jerome Boateng	in group F vs. Sweden	Group F vs. South Korea
Armando Cooper	in group G against Belgium in group G against England	Group G vs. Tunisia
Michael Murillo	in group G against Belgium in group G against England	Group G vs. Tunisia
Igor Smolnikov	in group A vs. Uruguay	Round of 16 vs. Spain
Karim El Ahmadi	in group B against Iran in group B against Spain	none, as the team was eliminated
Sebastian Larsson	in group F against Germany in group F against Mexico	Round of 16 against Switzerland
Héctor Moreno	in group F against Germany in group F against Sweden	Round of 16 vs. Brazil
Jung woo-young	in group F against Mexico in group F against Germany	none, as the team was eliminated
Stephan Lichtsteiner	in group E vs. Brazil in group E vs. Costa Rica	Round of 16 vs. Sweden
Fabian Schär	in group E vs. Brazil in group E vs. Costa Rica	Round of 16 vs. Sweden
Nemanja Matic	in group E vs. Switzerland in group E vs. Brazil	none, as the team was eliminated
Aleksandar Mitrovic	in group E vs. Switzerland in group E vs. Brazil	none, as the team was eliminated
M'Baye Niang	in group H against Japan in group H against Colombia	none, as the team was eliminated
Ferjani Sassi	in group G vs. Belgium in group G vs. Panama	none, as the team was eliminated
Cristiano Ronaldo	in group B against Iran in the round of 16 against Uruguay	none, as the team was eliminated
Casemiro	in group E against Switzerland in the round of 16 against Mexico	Quarter-finals vs. Belgium
Mikael Funny	in group F against Mexico in the round of 16 against Switzerland	Quarterfinals vs. England
Blaise Matuidi	in group C against Peru in the round of 16 against Argentina	Quarter-finals vs. Uruguay
Zanka	in group C against France in the round of 16 against Croatia	none, as the team was eliminated
Ever Banega	in group D against Nigeria in the round of 16 against France	none, as the team was eliminated
Javier Mascherano	in group D against Nigeria in the round of 16 against France	none, as the team was eliminated
Nicolás Otamendi	in group D against Croatia in the round of 16 against France	none, as the team was eliminated
Valon Behrami	in group E against Brazil in the round of 16 against Sweden	none, as the team was eliminated
Michael Lang	in the round of 16 against Sweden	2018/19 UEFA Nations League against Iceland on September 8, 2018
Héctor Herrera	in group F against Germany in the round of 16 against Brazil	none, as the team was eliminated
Wilmar Barrios	in group H against Japan in the round of 16 against England	none, as the team was eliminated
Rodrigo Bentancur	in group A against Russia in the quarterfinals against France	none, as the team was eliminated
Thomas Meunier	in group G against Panama in the quarterfinals against Brazil	Semi-finals vs. France
Yuri Gasinsky	in group A against Uruguay in the quarterfinals against Croatia	none, as the team was eliminated

referee

• Ravshan Ermatov (Uzbekistan), already the record referee at the World Cup, was in charge of a World Cup match for the tenth time in Argentina against Croatia.
• The German referee Felix Brych took part as the reigning world referee, but was not nominated for any further game after only one appearance in the preliminary round and was sent home before the quarter-finals. In the politically explosive preliminary round match between Serbia and Switzerland (1: 2), he did not give a penalty for an alleged foul on the Serbian striker in the Swiss penalty area. Furthermore, he left political (and therefore forbidden) cheers of the Swiss Granit Xhaka , Xherdan Shaqiri and Stephan Lichtsteiner unpunished (the players formed double-headed eagles with their hands after their goals , an allusion to the flag of Albania - which the Serbs perceived as a clear provocation). Following the match, Brych was heavily criticized by the Serbian media and representatives of Serbian football. Mladen Krstajić , the coach of the Serbian national team, compared him the day after the lost game with war criminals in the Yugoslav wars : “I would send him to The Hague . So that they make him the process as they made him us ”. For this, Krstajić was fined 5000 francs. The Serbian Association also had to pay 54,000 francs for “discriminatory banners” and battle calls from fans. For their forbidden jubilation, Xhaka and Shaqiri each paid CHF 10,000, Lichtsteiner CHF 5,000.

Others

• For the first time since the introduction of the FIFA world rankings , the host of the World Cup was the worst placed participant in the FIFA world rankings at the time of the draw and immediately before the tournament, and in the opening game they met the second worst placed participant Saudi Arabia, the first Asian team played a World Cup opening game.
• The video assistant was used for the first time at a World Cup. In the match between France and Australia there was a penalty for France and a yellow card for Joshua Risdon after video evidence, which was the first time in World Cup history a referee decision was revised.
• Japan is the first Asian team to win a World Cup against a South American national team ( 2-1 in the group stage against Colombia ).
• For the first time, there was no goalless game on the first two match days (32 games) of a World Cup finals. Previously, the mark was 26 games when there was no goalless game at the 1954 World Cup.
• In the last group game between South Korea and Germany, the record for the longest injury time in this World Cup was set. The second half was played by a total of 9 minutes and 18 seconds.
• With their end in the preliminary round, the German team continued a trend: As in the tournaments in 2014 (Spain) and 2010 (Italy), the defending champions did not survive the group stage. Of the five championships to date in the 21st century, this was the fourth early retirement of the reigning title holder, since the French did not reach the knockout round in 2002 either. Only Brazil was spared this fate in 2006 and the team at least reached the quarter-finals.
• For the first time since 1982, no African team survived the preliminary round.
• For the first time in a World Cup tournament, no team scored less than two goals.
• The group game between Japan and Poland was the 1,000th. Game of a European national team in the history of the World Cup.
• The Russian national team (including the Soviet national team ) took part in a penalty shootout at a World Cup for the first time in their history - in the round of 16 against Spain .
• Alexander Yerochin (Russia) is the first player to come on as the fourth player in a World Cup match - in the 97th minute of extra time in the round of 16 against Spain. This game is also the first World Cup game in which eight players were replaced .
• The English team won a penalty shootout for the first time in a World Cup. Despite some participation in international tournaments, the Three Lions were considered to be extremely unlucky if a winner had to be determined in this way. The victory in the round of 16 against Colombia was a first.
• Neither Germany nor Brazil - the two most successful nations at world championships - made it to the semi-finals. That only happened at the first World Cup in 1930.
• For the fourth time in a row after 2006, 2010 and 2014, a team from Europe became world champions in 2018. This has never before succeeded in any continental association.
• For the first time since 1998, a team won a semi-final with Croatia, in which they were initially behind: After the English led early, the Croatians equalized and scored the winner. The last time such a spin was achieved by the eventual world champion France in their own country - against Croatia. The finalists for the next 20 years were able to either hold a lead (although only Uruguay managed to equalize in the semi-finals against the Netherlands in 2010) or win the penalty shoot-out after a goalless game. At no point did the future world and runner-up world champions lag behind in the semifinals.
• For the first time, two teams that had previously met in the preliminary round contested the game for 3rd place. In both games, Belgium prevailed against England.
• With the victories of the Croatian selection against Denmark and Russia on penalties and against England in extra time, a team was able to qualify for the first time for the final of a world championship with three wins after regular time (extra time / penalty shoot-out) in the knockout phase.
• For the first time, two teams met in the quarter-finals, Croatia and Russia, who won their round of 16 on penalties. The quarter-finals in 2018 were won by Croatia - also on penalties. Croatia is the second team since Argentina in 1990 to win two consecutive penalties in a tournament.
• No semi-final participant in the previous World Cup was actually able to convince at this tournament: As already mentioned, World Champion Germany did not survive the group phase, while Vice World Champion Argentina lost after just barely surviving the preliminary round in the second round. The third-placed Dutch had already failed in the qualification. As the last semi-finalist in 2014, Brazil only reached the quarter-finals, despite much greater ambitions. The fact that the four best-placed teams in a tournament were completely different from those of the previous one was previously only the case in 1934 and 1966.

Impact on the FIFA World Ranking

France rose to the top of the world rankings for the first time since 2002 thanks to its victories at the World Cup finals, while Germany slipped from 1st to 15th due to its poor performance. After the World Cup, participants in the final took the first 11 places in the world rankings. With Chile, which failed in the South American qualification and was still in 9th place in June, the first team that did not qualify for the finals follows in 12th place. Since a new rating was introduced at the same time as the August ranking list, the points are not comparable and are therefore not listed.

team	Place (June 2018)	Place (August 2018)	Change places	comment
France	7th	1	6 ↑	best placement since 2002
Belgium	3	2	1 ↑	best placement since 2016
Brazil	2	3	1 ↓
Croatia	20th	4th	16 ↑	best placement since June 2013
Uruguay	14th	5	9 ↑	best placement since 2014
England	12	6th	6 ↑	best placement since 2013
Portugal	4th	7th	3 ↓	worst ranking since June 2017
Switzerland	6th	8th	2 ↓
Spain	10	9	1 ↑
Denmark	12	9	3 ↑	best placement since 2012
Argentina	5	11	6 ↓	worst ranking since 1997
Sweden	24	13	11 ↑	best placement since 2005
Colombia	16	14th	2 ↑
Germany	1	15th	14 ↓	worst ranking since 2005
Mexico	15th	16	1 ↓
Poland	8th	18th	10 ↓	worst ranking since 2016
Peru	11	20th	9 ↓
Tunisia	21st	23	3 ↓
Senegal	27	24	3 ↑
Costa Rica	23	32	9 ↓
Iran	37	32	5 ↑
Iceland	22nd	32	10 ↓
Serbia	34	36	2 ↓
Australia	36	43	7 ↓
Morocco	41	46	5 ↓
Russia	70	49	21 ↑	Best climber overall by rank
Nigeria	48	49	1 ↓
Japan	61	55	6 ↑
South Korea	57	57	=
Egypt	45	65	20 ↓	Biggest relegation overall by rank
Panama	55	69	14 ↓
Saudi Arabia	67	70	3 ↓

Source of the values ​​(figures rounded, therefore there may be deviations in the differences calculated on the basis of the unrounded values): FIFA

See also

• Soccer World Cup / Records

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fifa.com: facts and figures on the World Cup squad
2. ↑ fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 26, 2018
3. ↑ fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 16, 2018
4. ↑ fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 16, 2018
5. ↑ ^{a b} fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 15, 2018
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} fifa.com: Stats of the Day - July 2, 2018
7. ↑ Fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 23, 2018
8. ↑ Fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 22, 2018
9. ↑ Fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 25, 2018
10. ↑ Fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 27, 2018
11. ↑ Opta Sports : From 27.6 meters! Argentina's Angel Di Maria scores from the greatest distance at the 2018 World Cup. June 30, 2018, accessed on July 1, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Goals scored. In: fifa.com. FIFA, accessed July 16, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Opta Sports : 50 - Yassine Meriah's own goal is the 50th in the World Cup history. Blow. Twitter , June 28, 2018, accessed June 29, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Disciplinary Code of FIFA , de.fifa.com of June 24, 2018. Last accessed on June 27, 2018
15. ↑ fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 24, 2018
16. ↑ fifa.com: Stats of the Day - June 29, 2018
17. ↑ France at the top - new calculation method introduced. In: fifa.com. FIFA, August 16, 2018, accessed August 16, 2018 .