The group stage of the 2014 Fifa World Cup concluded on Thursday. The 15-day long affair was a memorable one for all football-lovers of this planet and
they would look forward to the same excitement in the knock-out stages
that would kick off on Saturday.
How did the tournament's group
phase go? Here is a look at some
facts from the 48 matches played so
far in the tournament.
136 goals scored in the group stage
The tournament so far has seen 136 goals, which means 2.8 goals have
been produced per match. In the
2010 World Cup held in South
Africa, only 101 goals were produced
in the first stage (per match average of 2.1)
Red cards and yellow cards
The average number of red cards
shown per match in the the group
stage in this WC is 0.2 and for
yellow cards, it is 2.7. In the 2010
edition, the figures were 0.3 and 3.8,
respectively.
The average passes per team in this World Cup during the group stage
were 384 (31 more than that of
2010). The actual playing time in
this WC has been 55.4 minutes per
match on an average. In 2010, it was
69.8.
Most number of goals scored in
Group B
In terms of scoring, Group B has
produced the most number of goals (22) in this World Cup while
GroupD has produced the least number of goals (12).
The Netherlands have
scored most number of goals (10)
followed by Colombia (9) while Iran,
Cameroon and Honduras have
scored the least number of goals (1).
Conceding just one goal
Mexico, Costa Rica and Belgium
conceded just one goal in the group
stage.
Netherlands beat Spain 5-1, France beat Switzerland 5-2 while
5 games ended goalless
The victory by the biggest margin
with the most number of goals was
recorded in the Netherlands-Spain
game in which the former won 5-1.
The most number of goals were
scored in the France-Switzerland
match (7). There were five goalless
draws.
Neymar, Messi, Muller lead the
race for the Golden Boot
In terms of scoring, three players
have scored four goals so far and
they are Neymar of Brazil, Messi of
Argentina and Thomas Muller of
Germany.
Two hat-tricks so far
Two hat-tricks have been scored in
the group stages. The first one was
scored by Germany's Muller against
Portugal (match score 4-0) while the
other one was scored by
Switzerland's Xherdan Shaqiri
against Honduras (match score 3-0).
Shaqiri's hat-trick was the 50th the
history of the World Cup.
Four top 10 teams failed to reach
Round of 16
Four teams from the top 10 in Fifa
rankings failed to make it to the
second stage in this World Cup and
they are Spain, Portugal, Italy and
England. Barring Portugal, the other three have been World Cup
champions with Spain being the
holders.
Three teams got full 9 points
The Netherlands, Argentina and
Belgium won all their group matches
to get full 9 points.
Bradley covered the maximum
distance
Michael Bradley of the USA has
covered the maximum distance on
the field in the group stage. He ran
for a total of 38,019 metres.
Foster didn't concede any goal
England goalkeeper Ben Foster had a perfect saving record as he did notconcede any goal.
Most number of complete passes
The Germany-USA match saw the
most number of passes being
completed (1,277).
For Latin America, only Ecuador
failed to progress
The only team from Latin America
which failed to qualify for the
Round of 16 was Ecuador.
All the others, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay proceeded to the next round from their groups.
All 4 Asian teams finished at the
bottom of the group
This World Cup was a forgettable
affair for the Asian continent. All the
four teams from Asia finished last in their respective groups after failing to win a single match. They scored just 9 goals while conceded 25. This was the first time since 1998 that no Asian team succeeded to qualify for the knock-out stage.Prequarterfinals line-up:
Brazil vs Chile; The Netherlands vs
Mexico; Colombia vs Uruguay; Costa Rica vs Greece;
France vs Nigeria;
Argentina vs Switzerland; Germany vs Algeria; Belgium vsUSA
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