21 July 2019

African numbers

Congratulations to Algeria who are the new rulers of the African continent! It took them just 81 seconds to score the winning goal, and after 21 days / nights here are all the numbers that made this event so exciting to watch and follow.

Goals and own goals: In normal time 101 goals were given in 52 matches or 1.94 per game. The only shake of the net in additional time was given at the 100 minute of the first semifinal which also was an own goal. And speaking of own goals, 4 of them happened in just 50 games. Tunisia gifted the other teams with the most: 2. Five goals were given in stoppage time: 2 after 45 minutes plus 3 happened after the ninetieth.

Unpopular results: the first time that we saw zeros in the games was at the end of round two, with 3 consecutive duels. After that, near the end of third round finished 2 times plus 1 more zero was at the first semifinal (when the unfortunate own goal happened in extra time).

Punishments, saved and missed: referees were in the mood to give 8 penalties for different teams in 50 duels: 3 of them in the first half plus 5 at the second. Two of them were given at the same game. Goalkeepers saved 4 punishments which 3 of them happened to be from Senegal. Players were quiet in all rounds from group stages, but from then on started to miss penalties on 2 occasions. This 'spell was broken' in round of 16, while the other was in the quarterfinal game.

Departure from games: in total there was 5 sending offs in the tournament. Three players received two yellow cards, with one of them happened to be at extra time. However, two footballers (one in the first and the other at the second half) did really nasty fouls from which referees gave them direct red card.

To conclude, it has been a fantastic summer where even 4 continental champions were decided in 2019: Asian Cup winners Qatar, Copa America champions Brazil, winners of the Gold Cup event Mexico plus the above mentioned champions of Africa Algeria. Unfortunately, these quartet will not be playing at the Confederations Cup 2021 (just to see who is better among them), because the tournament was cancelled two years ago when this stupidest idea came from the world football organization who put all the weight now on the Club World Cup event.

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