With the FIFA World Cup group stage coming to an end with the Group G games, Qatar 2022 has captured the attention of all for its unpredictable nature, with many illustrious teams stumbling early.
This is the first time since 1994 that there are no teams with all-win records.
Brazil had the last chance among the 32 teams to break the trend, but lost to Cameroon 1-0 in its last group game.
This is also only the fourth time it has happened in the history of the tournament, with the other years being 1994, 1962 and 1958. Interestingly, in all of the aforementioned years, Brazil went on to win the tournament.
This statistic throws light onto the uneven nature of the competition, with four-time champion Germany and 2010 winner Spain losing to Japan, and two-time winner Argentina stumbling to Saudi Arabia. Belgium, which finished third in 2018, lost to Morocco and went out in the group stage, along with the Germans.
Qatar 2022 also witnessed the least number of teams emerging out of the group stage unbeaten, since 1994. This year, only Netherlands, USA, England, Croatia and Morocco haven’t lost a game in the group stage, while in 1994 there were only four teams who had achieved the feat.
The record for most teams remaining unbeaten after the group stage belongs to the 1998 and 2002 editions when 12 teams did so.
The only time every group in a FIFA World Cup had a team with an all-win record was in the first World Cup in 1930, when there were four such teams in each of the groups.
