Need the all-important stats and facts for week three of the World Cup? We have you covered…
Monday 22 June
10pm: France v Iraq, Group I
Kylian Mbappé’s past 13 World Cup goals have all come beyond the hour mark (including one in extra time). Mbappé and Lionel Messi have each hit five goals in their past two World Cup games: Mbappé scored three in the 2022 final and twice last week, while Messi, in reverse, scored two in that final and three last week.
Tuesday 23 June
6pm: Portugal v Uzbekistan, Group K
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 22 more international goals than Andorra and San Marino combined in their history (Ronaldo 143, Andorra 77, San Marino 44). But he has not scored for 13 hours, 21 minutes at major tournaments, nor has he scored a non-penalty for 18 hours, 41 minutes.
9pm: England v Ghana, Group L
The past three FA Cup finals played in a World Cup year have produced just two goals. Chelsea’s Belgian Eden Hazard scored in the 2018 final, then netted against England at the World Cup; now Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo can follow his 2026 final winner by scoring against England. Is that an omen? Anagram of Semenyo: “Omen? Yes”
Wednesday 24 June
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3am: Colombia v DR Congo, Group K
This is the third World Cup match between nations located on the equator. The other two cases were Brazil v Zaire (now DR Congo) in a group match in 1974, and Brazil v Colombia in a quarter-final in 2014. Brazil won both games. Ecuador are the only other equatorial country to have played at a World Cup.
8pm: Switzerland v Canada, Group B
Five players in Canada’s squad are at English clubs outside the Premier League. Of the 89 players at this World Cup who play for clubs below a country’s top flight, almost half (42) are based in England, four of them in League One and one – Tommy Smith of Braintree Town and New Zealand – in the National League.
Thursday 25 June
Midnight: Japan v Sweden, Group F
When Graham Potter’s Sweden beat Tunisia 5-1 in their opening game of this tournament it was the biggest World Cup win by a foreign team led by an Englishman. The next largest: George Raynor’s Sweden beat Mexico 3-0 in 1958 and Roy Hodgson’s Switzerland beat Romania 4-1 in 1994. But Sweden’s 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands in their next match this weekend was the largest World Cup defeat for an Englishman leading a foreign team since John Adshead’s New Zealand were beaten 4-0 by Brazil in 1982.
Friday 26 June
3am: Paraguay v Australia, Group D
Two of Australia’s Asian confederation rivals at this World Cup (Iran and Jordan) are evident within the names of Australia’s Nestory Irankunda and Jordan Bos. Paraguay scored an own goal in the first seven minutes of their opening World Cup game in 2006 (against England) and this year (United States).
Photograph by Koen Van Weelan/ANP via Getty Images