By the
Numbers
Every goal, trend and story from the first 48-nation World Cup — 104 matches and 308 goals, broken all the way down.
Spain
def.
Argentina
104
Matches
308
Goals
2.96
Goals / Match
282
Cards
308
goals — 2.96 a game, one of the most free-scoring World Cups in years
84%
of matches won by the team with more shots on target — end product beats territory
29%
of all goals arrived after the 75th minute — the drama came late
1
goal conceded by Spain in 8 games — the meanest defence, and the champions
10
goals for Kylian Mbappé, the Golden Boot & our Player of the Tournament
Spain's Road to Glory
How the champions marched to the crown
Nobody was tougher to beat. Over 8 matches — 7 of them wins — Spain scored 14 and conceded a barely-believable 1 goal: a wall no other side got close to. Tap any game to relive it.
The Goal Rush
All 308 of them — and exactly when they flew in
308 goals in 104 games — 2.96 a match — made this one of the most free-scoring World Cups in memory. And the late show was everything: nearly a third (29%) of all goals landed after the 75th minute. Forget cagey knockouts, too — they went toe-to-toe with the group stage (2.91 goals a game to 2.99, where four ties needed penalties to separate the sides).
Goals by Match Minute
29% scored after 75'How Goals Came
Goals per Match
Knockouts outscored the group stage — the opposite of the usual "cagey knockouts" narrative.
What Actually Wins Matches
We stacked the winners against the beaten — the gap says it all
Possession is pretty. Shots on target win football matches. The side with more of them took the win 84% of the time — while simply hogging the ball paid off in just 75%. Winners mustered 5.9 shots on target to the losers' 2.7, a chasm no possession count came close to. The verdict of 2026: end product beats territory, every time.
Possession %
Shots on Target
Pass Accuracy
84%
of matches were won by the team with more shots on target
65 of 77 decisive matches
75%
won by the team with more possession
63 of 84 decisive matches
Verdict: shots on target predicts winning far better than possession does.
Clinical vs Wasteful
Ice-cold finishers and the ones who fluffed their lines
Some teams made chances count; others made you wince. United States were lethal, tucking away 58% of everything they put on target. Spare a thought for Ecuador: 20 shots on target, just 2 goals, and a 10% return that must have stung.
Most Clinical
Highest conversion
United States
58%
Netherlands
50%
Mexico
48%
Portugal
47%
Norway
45%
Most Wasteful
Lowest conversion
Ecuador
10%
Colombia
17%
Turkey
19%
Spain
26%
New Zealand
27%
Conversion = goals ÷ shots on target. Teams with at least 15 shots on target across the tournament qualify — below that a single goal swings the rate too far to compare fairly.
Players of the Tournament
Ranked by the Sports445 Player Index — goals, assists, and staying out of the book
The Index keeps it simple: five for a goal, three for an assist, a little off for cards. One name towered over the rest — Kylian Mbappé, with 10 goals and 4 assists for an index of 61.5, clear of the entire field. Spain took the trophy; he took the tournament.
Player of the Tournament
Kylian Mbappé
France
10
Goals
4
Assists
61.5
Index
Kylian Mbappé
10
4
61.5
Lionel Messi
8
4
52
Jude Bellingham
7
1
37.5
Ousmane Dembélé
6
2
36
Erling Haaland
7
0
35
Harry Kane
6
1
33
Mikel Oyarzabal
5
1
28
Bukayo Saka
3
3
24
Rodri
Editor's Pick
0
0
—
Spain's metronome — the control, tempo and screening in front of the back four that no box score can capture.
Golden Boot Race
Kylian Mbappé
10
Lionel Messi
8
Erling Haaland
7
Jude Bellingham
7
Harry Kane
6
Top Playmakers
Michael Olise
7
Brahim Díaz
4
Bruno Guimarães
4
Martin Ødegaard
4
Kylian Mbappé
4
Team of the Tournament
The Sports445 XI — a 4-3-3 built from the numbers
This isn't just a roll-call of goalscorers. Up front, players earn their shirt on goals and assists; at the back, the defence and keeper earn theirs on clean sheets. No surprise, then, that the champions Spain own the spine — with the tournament's deadliest attackers let loose out front.
Formation 4-3-3 · attackers ranked on goals + assists, defenders and the keeper on clean sheets kept while starting.
The Style Map
Tiki-taka or route one? Every team's identity, mapped
Every crest is a team, dropped into place by how it played: further right means more of the ball, higher up means more direct (a bigger diet of long balls). What you get is football's oldest argument drawn as a diagonal — the possession purists (Turkey and Germany) tucked bottom-right, the direct, get-it-forward sides (Paraguay and Qatar) up top-left. Where a team sits tells you more than the scoreline ever could. Hover a crest for its numbers.
Mexico
52.1% Directness
12.8
South Africa
47.8% Directness
13.5
Canada
54.2% Directness
8.4
Bosnia-Herzegovina
45.7% Directness
14.3
Qatar
32.9% Directness
22.8
Switzerland
54.1% Directness
9.6
Brazil
52.9% Directness
7.6
Morocco
59% Directness
7.9
Germany
65.2% Directness
5
Curaçao
32.5% Directness
14.4
Netherlands
53% Directness
7.6
Japan
46.5% Directness
10.4
Ivory Coast
49.8% Directness
9.3
Ecuador
55.6% Directness
9.7
Spain
64% Directness
5.9
Cape Verde Islands
37% Directness
16.2
Belgium
51.1% Directness
9.5
Egypt
51.6% Directness
10.2
Saudi Arabia
38.4% Directness
11.2
Uruguay
55% Directness
10.1
France
55.7% Directness
6.9
Senegal
55.5% Directness
10.5
Iraq
38% Directness
17.4
Norway
52.2% Directness
9.1
Austria
45.1% Directness
7.8
Jordan
30.5% Directness
16.5
Portugal
58.3% Directness
8
Congo DR
39.8% Directness
14.3
England
54.1% Directness
8.9
Croatia
49.8% Directness
9.5
Ghana
36.3% Directness
17.2
Panama
45.6% Directness
15.8
Czechia
42.9% Directness
15.9
United States
56.8% Directness
9
Australia
41.1% Directness
14.6
Scotland
44.5% Directness
10.8
Sweden
46.1% Directness
12.2
Tunisia
39.3% Directness
16.1
Iran
39% Directness
17.1
Argentina
57.5% Directness
6.3
Uzbekistan
38.4% Directness
14.1
Haiti
42.6% Directness
15.2
Colombia
57.4% Directness
10.7
Paraguay
29.7% Directness
25.8
South Korea
62.5% Directness
9.9
Turkey
65.8% Directness
8.6
New Zealand
47.1% Directness
9.9
Algeria
61.2% Directness
7
Bottom-right = possession-based sides · Top-left = direct, long-ball sides. Hover or tap a crest for its numbers.
Clean Sheet Kings
The defences that simply refused to be beaten
Spain
in 8 games
7
clean
Colombia
in 5 games
4
clean
Mexico
in 5 games
4
clean
France
in 8 games
4
clean
Ghana
in 4 games
2
clean
Australia
in 4 games
2
clean
Discipline
The referees earned their fee — 282 cards, 2.7 a game — but it rarely turned ugly: just 16 of them red, with Argentina the most-booked side.
266
Yellow
16
Red
2.7
Per Match
Most-Booked Teams
Argentina
14
Egypt
12
Canada
11
Paraguay
10
United States
9
Ecuador
9
Records
Biggest Win
Germany
7-1
Curaçao
Meanest Defences
Fewest goals conceded per game · minimum 3 games played
Spain
8
0.13
1 conceded
2
Colombia
5
0.20
1 conceded
3
Mexico
5
0.60
3 conceded
4
Portugal
5
0.60
3 conceded
5
Ghana
4
0.75
3 conceded
6
Australia
4
0.75
3 conceded
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Goal counts reflect goals scored in normal and extra time, in line with official records — penalty-shootout goals from knockout ties are excluded. Individual player tallies are derived from match event data and may differ marginally from official figures.