Brazil is the team with the most accurate shots and attempted dribbles; see the balance of the first round of the Cup

Brazil’s victory over Serbia, 2-0, on Thursday (24), ended the first round of the group stage of the 2022 World Cup, held in Qatar.

Data analyzed by Sheet show that the Brazilian team was the one that hit the most shots, alongside Germany, considering the 16 matches that opened the competition.

Against the Serbs, Brazil took 18 shots, not counting the blocked attempts. He hit the target nine times, requiring some good interventions from goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

His saves weren’t enough to change the game’s history, like Shuichi Gonda’s in Japan’s historic 2-1 comeback over Germany.

The four-time champion managed to finish 20 times and also sent nine balls on target against the Asian team. Four of them were defended in a row by Gonda, in the same move, when the score was still 1-0 in favor of the Germans.

At the other extreme, the team with the fewest chances created was Costa Rica. Victim of the biggest rout of the first round, the Caribbean team was unable to finalize a single move in the 7-0 defeat by Spain.

In proportional terms, the best performance in kicks was that of Saudi Arabia. There were two opportunities created and both converted in the 2-1 comeback over Argentina.

Two other indicators help to explain what may have become the biggest upset in the history of the World Cups.

Lionel Messi’s team was the one that most fell into impediments in the first round. With a high scoring by the Saudis, the Argentines had ten disabled attacks, including three disallowed goals.

The Arab team also did not ease up on ball disputes. It was the selection with the most fouls committed, by interrupting 21 plays irregularly.

The ranking of legal tackles was led by Japan, with 29 balls stolen from the Germans.

Also considering interceptions, the team that destroyed the opponent’s plays the most was Iran. The 32 cuts, however, did not prevent the 6-2 defeat suffered by England.

To escape the marking, the English team was the one that risked the most dribbling, tied with Brazil. The difference is that the Europeans hit 13 out of 24 individual shots, against just 5 for the Canadian team.

Unsurprisingly, Spain topped the rankings for attempted and successful passes by far. The new generation of tiki-taka played 1,045 times and got 978 right. Well above the runner-up, England, with 797 and 716 respectively.

Regarding the 2018 World Cup, in Russia, the number of games without goals in the opening round increased, from none four years ago to four in the current edition. The total goals scored, however, rose from 34 (average of 1.06 per game) to 41 (1.32).

With the new technology of the VAR (video assistant referee) called “semi-automatic offside”, the irregular position markings also grew. There were 53 bids, against 43 in the first round of the previous World Cup.

The number of fouls scored, in turn, decreased. From 441 in the opening games of the last Cup (average of 14 per game) to 362 this year (11).