Football is Mathematics
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The 2022 World Cup group stage will do down as one of the best in the history of the competition. The first few games of the tournament failed to catch the imagination but the fixture between Argentina and Saudi Arabia set the tournament alight.
The shock victory for Saudi Arabia over pre-tournament favourites Argentina was the first of many in what developed into a group stage to remember.
Group stage complete ✅
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 2, 2022
It's a straight road to the #Qatar2022 Final for these 16 teams!#FIFAWorldCup
The day after Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, Germany started their 2022 World Cup campaign against Japan and took an early lead from the penalty spot.
There was no sign Japan were going to cause the Germans any problem but the Japanese scored 2 goals the final 15 minutes of the game to produce one of the biggest upsets at the World Cup.
The Japanese did not stop there and having suffered a setback by losing to Costa Rica, Japan beat Spain in dramatic circumstances in their final group match to qualify for the round of 16. Germany was the team to miss out.
Belgium entered the 2022 World Cup ranked as the second best team in the World according to the FIFA rankings. The Red Devils struggled against Canada but came away with a fortunate 1-0 win.
However, Morocco proved a different story and the African nation produced a tremendous display to beat Belgium 2-0. Belgium had to beat Croatia to have any chance of progressing to the round of 16 but a 0-0 draw saw them going home earlier than anticipated. Morocco topped the group, which was a huge surprise.
Both Brazil and France were defeated in their final group games by Cameroon and Tunisia, respectively. It is worth nothing they both made several changes to their teams for the final group games but the losses still came as a shock.
In total, teams from six continents made the round of 16 for the first time and there were 12 upsets in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup. The previous record stood at 9 upsets, which happened in the 2002 and 2010 tournaments.
In terms of individual performances, the big name players have performed in the group stages. Lionel Messi was key for Argentina as he scored the opening goal against Mexico and produced a fantastic performance against Poland.
Robert Lewandowski scored his first World Cup goal, Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Portugal, becoming the first man to score at five World Cups, Virgil van Dijk marshalled the Dutch through Group A, Kylian Mbappe scored crucial goals for France, Casemiro has been key in midfield for Brazil, and Bruno Fernandes has been at the heart of Portugal’s attacking play.
However, we have also seen the emergence of some young players in the group stage. Cody Gakpo of the Netherlands, Ghana's Mohammed Kudus, and Yunus Musah of the United States are just some of the talents to emerge.
One other factor to mention about the group stage of the 2022 World Cup is added time.
We saw 525 additional minutes in total at the end of the group matches, more than any other World Cup. That is the equivalent to over 5 extra football matches in the group stage of the competition.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | |
| 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | |||
| 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | ||||||
| 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 |
| 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Mexico | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
2 |
South Africa | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -1 |
3 |
South Korea | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -1 |
4 |
Czech Republic | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -4 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Switzerland | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
2 |
Canada | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
3 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -1 |
4 |
Qatar | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -8 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Brazil | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
2 |
Morocco | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
3 |
Scotland | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -3 |
4 |
Haiti | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -6 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
USA | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
2 |
Australia | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
3 |
Paraguay | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -2 |
4 |
Türkiye | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Germany | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
2 |
Ivory Coast | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
3 |
Ecuador | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
4 |
Curaçao | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -8 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Netherlands | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
2 |
Japan | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
3 |
Sweden | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
4 |
Tunisia | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -10 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Belgium | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
2 |
Egypt | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
3 |
Iran | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
4 |
New Zealand | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -6 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Spain | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
2 |
Cape Verde | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
3 |
Uruguay | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -1 |
4 |
Saudi Arabia | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -4 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
France | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
2 |
Norway | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
3 |
Senegal | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
4 |
Iraq | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -11 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Argentina | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
2 |
Austria | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
3 |
Algeria | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -2 |
4 |
Jordan | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -5 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
Colombia | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
2 |
Portugal | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
3 |
DR Congo | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
4 |
Uzbekistan | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -9 |
| OVERALL TABLE | |||||||
| OVERALL TABLE | PTS | GP | W | D | L | +/- | |
1 |
England | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
2 |
Croatia | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
3 |
Ghana | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
4 |
Panama | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -4 |
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