Qatar 2022, it’s the World Cup of balance: the surprising figure

No team with full points after the group stage: hasn’t happened since 1994

With the group stage’s glut of games and goals over – as many as four matches a day have been played in the last four days – the World Cup is not allowing any breaks: it is already time for the round of 16, with the Netherlands and the US at 4 p.m. and Argentina and Australia at 8 p.m. on the pitch on Saturday.

With the group stage archived, it is time for statistical balances. That it could be an anomalous, atypical World Cup was inherent in its timing: never had the World Cup been held in November and December. Qatar 2022 does not cease to offer surprises and curiosities: after the first three matches, only three national teams are undefeated – Morocco, the Netherlands and England – and above all, no team (neither the highly favored Brazil, nor the talented France, nor the entertaining Spain) has finished the group stage with full points.

It had been since 1994, since the bitter, for the Azzurri colors, World Cup on U.S. soil, that such a statistic had not been found. Just to understand the magnitude of this relief, in 2014 there were four teams to make the en-plein in the elimination rounds, while in Russia 2018 three. Balance reigns, at least for now. As we wait for the upcoming knockout rounds to once again upset the predictions of insiders and bettors…