Stats suggest Qatar is a World Cup of shocks
The World Cup group stage has thrown up its fair share of surprises in 2022.
Argentina, France, Spain, Portugal and Brazil all suffered defeats against lower-ranked opposition on the way to qualifying for the last 16, while Germany and Belgium exited the competition on the back of shock losses.
Is this unprecedented or simply the continuation of a trend?
Here, we compare group stage results in 2022 with the previous six World Cups contested by 32 teams.
Nobody is perfect
This is the first World Cup since the expansion to 32 teams in which no team has qualified from the group stage with a 100 per cent record.
At least two sides have taken maximum points in each edition since 1998, with Uruguay, Croatia and Belgium doing so in 2018.
England are statistically the strongest qualifiers in Qatar, with seven points and nine goals scored compared with just two conceded.
Gareth Southgate's side are one of just five teams to go through the group unbeaten, alongside the Netherlands, Morocco, Croatia and USA.
The number of undefeated qualifiers is down from nine in 2018 and the fewest in the 32-team era.
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Non-stop shocks
Twelve of the 48 group stage matches have been won by the team rated lower by FIFA, with 26 won by the higher-ranked side and the remaining 10 ending in a draw.
This is in line with the average across the past six World Cups.
However, the number of outright upsets – where a team defeats an opponent with a significantly higher ranking – has risen.
One in four matches (25 per cent) between