Five statistical trends from the 2022 World Cup

Lionel Messi, 35, was 1 of a grounds 23 'veteran' players (aged 35 oregon over) to marque a combined full of 83 starts - a World Cup record

After 64 games and a grounds 172 goals, Argentina were crowned World champions for a 3rd clip with their melodramatic penalty shoot-out triumph implicit France.

1. Most upsets for 64 years

Qatar was a tourney for the underdogs with 15 matches ending successful an upset.

That started with Saudi Arabia's 2-1 triumph implicit eventual winners Argentina connected the 3rd time of the tourney - 1 of 12 shocks successful the radical stages, which is simply a grounds for the competition.

Morocco's eliminations of some Spain and Portugal successful the last-16 and quarter-finals respectively, and Croatia's quarter-final triumph implicit Brazil, meant 24% of games ended successful what Gracenote classes arsenic an upset.

That is the highest percent of shocks since Sweden 1958 (26%).

According to Gracenote's methodology, an upset occurs if "the winning squad had little than 33.3% accidental of winning implicit 90 minutes successful the radical signifier oregon a maximum of 47% accidental of eliminating their opponents successful the knockout phase."

2. Fewer shots...more goals

There were 'only' 1,458 shots astatine this year's tournament, which was the lowest magnitude since Gracenote started signaling information connected the statistic successful 2002, down from a precocious of 1661 successful 2014.

Indeed, the mean fig of shots taken during a lucifer successful Qatar was 22.8.

But that did not halt the goals raining in, with a grounds 172 goals scored - the highest since the tourney was expanded to 32 teams successful 1998, with 171 scored astatine some France 1998 and Brazil 2014.

Only USA 1994's 2.71 goals per lucifer beats Qatar 2022's 2.69.

There were 117 antithetic goalscorers successful the tourney - 5 shy of the World Cup acceptable successful Russia 4 years ago.

More goals were besides scored from wrong the punishment country than immoderate of the 4 erstwhile competitions astatine which information was collected connected the statistic.

92.9% of goals were scored from wrong the punishment area, with a grounds 62.7% of shots wrong the box.

England skipper Harry Kane scored 1 punishment and missed different against France successful the quarter-final

3. 'Cleanest' World Cup this period and much stoppage time

Referees handed retired 227 yellowish cards - the astir since 2010, which Gracenote accidental is down to stricter refereeing, portion lone 4 reddish cards were shown - the aforesaid arsenic successful Russia.

But the fig of fouls declined for the 4th successive tourney to its lowest level this period astatine 1,599 - possibly a reflection of referees being encouraged to fto play flow.

A full of 23 penalties were awarded astatine an mean of 0.36 per lucifer - including 3 successful the last - but that was really down connected the 2018 World Cup successful Russia, the archetypal with Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology.

The amount of stoppage clip was a large talking point earlier successful the tourney and matches lasted an mean 11 further minutes - up from six minutes successful 2018 - owed to Fifa's stricter rules connected time-wasting.

The 3 penalties successful the World Cup last contributed to a full of 23 successful the tourney - not including shoot-outs

4. Young guns

The 2022 contention saw the astir teenagers starting than astatine immoderate different World Cup.

10 teenagers made 20 starts including 19-year-old England midfielder Jude Bellingham, 19-year-old Germany midfielder Jamal Musiala and 18-year-old Spain midfielder Gavi.

France guardant Kylian Mbappe, present 23, inactive holds the grounds for astir starts arsenic a teen with six to his sanction astatine the 2018 edition.

5. Ageing stars

It was not conscionable a twelvemonth for the young players arsenic it besides saw the astir seasoned players, competitors aged 35 and over, starting World Cup matches.

A combined 27 seasoned players made 83 starts astatine the 2022 tournament, 32 much starts than the erstwhile grounds acceptable astatine the 2002 World Cup.

Messi, 35, and Croatia's Luka Modric, 37, made the astir starts of immoderate seasoned subordinate successful Qatar with 7 each.

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