A peculiar fact about the FIFA World Cup is that only once has a nation won it after losing its opening fixture. Spain won the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa after losing their first match against Switzerland in a tough Group H that also had Chile and Honduras.
Spain had achieved the feat in 2010, when it won the title after losing to Switzerland in the tournament opener. Argentina had began that Qatar World Cup with a shock 1-2 defeat to Saudi Arabia.
Explain how the tournament works.
The top two finishers in each group advance to the round of 16, so losing one game at this stage does not eliminate a team. But after that, the World Cup is a straight knockout tournament.
Across 21 editions of the tournament, only four times have teams reached the final after losing its first game. And only once has a team gone onto win the World Cup, when Spain lifted its first title in 2010.
That tally was reached in 1982, 2006, 2010, 2014 and now 2022. The seven goalless draws in Qatar so far have been: Mexico 0-0 Poland, Denmark 0-0 Tunisia, Croatia 0-0 Morocco, South Korea 0-0 Uruguay, England 0-0 USA, Croatia 0-0 Belgium and Morroco 0-0 Spain (AET).
World Cup overtime rules
If a match ends in a draw after 90 minutes – two halves of 45 minutes plus stoppage time (added time to compensate for time lost to injuries and other interruptions) – the game goes into extra time.
The record number of 0-0 draws at a World Cup is seven, now shared by five different editions of the tournament. That tally was reached in 1982, 2006, 2010, 2014 and now 2022.
The 2017 Cleveland Browns and 2008 Detroit Lions tied for the most losses in a single NFL with 16 losses.
Considered by many to be perhaps the greatest World Cup match in history, the 1966 final delivered England its first – and only to this point – World Cup.
Italy, however, won the second penalty shootout in a FIFA World Cup final as they outscored France 5-3 in 2006. France is the only team to lose the World Cup final twice via penalties when they ended up losing the shootout 4-2 against Argentina after the match was tied 3-3 at the end of the extra time.
The golden goal was used in the FIFA World Cup for the last time in 2002, when Turkey defeated Senegal in the quarter-finals when İlhan Mansız scored what would be the final golden goal in male tournaments.
The Cup used to be kept by the winning team until the final draw of the next tournament, however, that is no longer the case. Instead the winners of the tournament receive a bronze replica which is gold-plated rather than solid gold.
If, after five penalties scored it is still tied, penalties continue through one back-and-forth round at a time – and the first team to have an advantage after a round between both teams wins. This is known as sudden death.
In practice, penalty shootouts did not occur before 1982. Three times, in 1994, 2006, and 2022, the World Cup title has been decided by a penalty shoot-out. Of the 35 shoot-outs that have taken place in the competition, only two reached the sudden death stage after still being tied at the end of "best of five kicks".
There are three teams who have reached the final and never lost. They are Uruguay (1930 and 1950), England (1966) and Spain (2010).
Back-to-back World Cup Champions
Italy accomplished the feat in 1934 and 1938, while Brazil pulled off back-to-back titles in 1958 and 1962. Since Brazil last accomplished this feat in 1962, several teams have come close to winning back-to-back titles but ultimately came up short.
Most finals have been one-sided, with the 1987 final between Australia and England being the closest. Of the last 10 World Cup finals, the team batting first has won the match seven times.
Germany's 1-0 win over Argentina in the Brazilian-hosted 2014 World Cup final has been the gold standard for the game's TV viewership with an average of 570.1 million watching, based on Kantar Media and FIFA data reported by the Associated Press.
France is the new betting favorite to win the World Cup (-125 at FOX Bet) after defeating long-shot Morocco on Wednesday in the semifinal match.
Only four quarterbacks in NFL history have ever beaten all 32 of the league's teams. It's basically a Mount Rushmore of modern QB greatness: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Brett Favre.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team that has ever achieved a perfect, undefeated season.
Other NFL perfect regular seasons
Apart from the 1972 Dolphins, three NFL teams have completed undefeated and untied regular seasons: the 1934 Chicago Bears, the 1942 Chicago Bears, and the 2007 New England Patriots.
In the 86th minute, despite being down by 29 goals, American Samoa managed to launch an attack towards Australia's goal when Pati Feagiai had a shot, which was saved by Michael Petkovic. That was American Samoa's only shot on goal.
As one of the 13 national sides that accepted the invitation to the inaugural World Cup, Peru was placed in Group 3 with Romania and hosts Uruguay. With a mere 300 spectators, Peru's match against Romania holds the record of lowest attendance in a World Cup game.
Goal droughts
The fewest goals scored in a single tournament stands at 70, which occurred at the first two World Cups in 1930 and 1934.