Spectacular strikes, dramatic turnarounds, last-gasp winners and shock upsets this World Cup has delivered no shortage of theatre. With the quarter-finals kicking off Thursday and eight matches remaining, the tournament hosted across Canada, Mexico and the United States is already the largest in history, expanding to 48 nations for the first time. The bigger question, though, is whether it’s also the best.
That’s naturally a matter of personal taste — plenty of fans will always favor whichever World Cup they watched first, or however far their own team advanced. Still, the numbers make a strong case for this edition standing out on the pitch.
Goals Galore
Excitement has been in constant supply. Across 96 of the tournament’s 104 matches, 280 goals have been scored — an average of 2.92 per game, the highest rate since Mexico 1970, which produced 2.97 goals per match. That easily surpasses recent tournaments: Qatar 2022 (2.69), Russia 2018 (2.64), Brazil 2014 (2.67) and South Africa 2010 (2.27). Germany’s 7-1 demolition of Curaçao stands as the biggest scoreline, while six other matches have produced six goals and thirteen more have seen five.
Attacking football has been the dominant trend too, with nearly three-quarters of all goals coming from open play — among the highest shares in World Cup history — while penalty-derived goals have hit a record low of just 5%.
Drama in the Final Minutes
Late goals have added to the spectacle. Eight of the 24 knockout matches so far have been decided by a goal scored after the 85th minute, Argentina needed extra time to overcome a stubborn Cape Verde side, and four ties have gone all the way to penalties. Enzo Fernández’s stoppage-time winner over Egypt marked the tournament’s tenth 90th-minute deciding goal — already a new World Cup record.
July alone produced three instant classics, as Belgium, Argentina and England each won 3-2 thrillers against Senegal, Egypt and Mexico. Belgium and Argentina both erased two-goal deficits late in their matches — the first time multiple such comebacks have occurred in a single World Cup since 1970. England, meanwhile, won despite playing over 40 minutes a man down following a red card, holding firm in a raucous atmosphere at Mexico City’s iconic Azteca Stadium.
Yet not every match has been end-to-end action — the tournament has also produced a record eight goalless draws, raising the question of whether that reflects a lack of quality or simply tighter, more competitive matchups.
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