The World Cup might be ancient history for some, but there’s still a lot of cool stuff to learn. Messi was spot-on, Ronaldo wasn’t, and England were the cleanest team at the tournament.
For instance, did you know that Canada were the only side to wear three shirts at the tournament? Do you even care? I care.
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FIFA World Cup 2022: DID YOU KNOW?
FIFA World Cup final strongly represented by Spanish clubs
Atlético Madrid had three players started the final (the most of any club). They were, namely, Nahuel Molina, Rodrigo De Paul and Antoine Griezmann. Milan, Barcelona, Benfica, Juventus, PSG and Tottenham had two each.
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Clean Three Lions
Harry Maguire was the only England player to receive a booking throughout the entire tournament – in the quarter-final against France – as Gareth Southgate’s team won the Fair Play Trophy. They would have probably preferred an actual trophy though. Lol. For the record, Argentina received the most (17).
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Youngest FIFA World Cup manager
Lionel Scaloni, aged 44 years, was the youngest manager at Qatar 2022. Amazingly, he was in Argentina’s World Cup squad in 2006 alongside Lionel Messi.
Speaking of Lionel Messi…spot-on
Messi scored four penalties at World Cup 2022 – against Saudi Arabia in the group, Netherlands in the quarter-finals, Croatia in the semi-finals and France in the final – and he also missed one against Poland in the groups. There were 19 penalties at the tournament and Argentina were awarded five of them (26%).
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Oh and by the way, Cristiano Ronaldo has never scored a goal in the knockout stages of a World Cup. Have a good weekend.
You can get more insights, analysis and love for the beautiful game from James Freemantle
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