Messi, Deschamps, 0-0: see records that can still be broken in the Cup

With three weeks of dispute, 60 of the 64 games played and only four teams in the fight for the Fifa Cup, some records were broken in the Qatar Cup.

There are others that can still be equaled or surpassed in this World Cup until its closing, on Sunday (18).

The Qatar Cup has already been notable for being the first in the Middle East and the first to have women in the arbitration, in addition to registering the biggest football disappointment of a host country: it lost all its games in the tournament.

MORE MATCHES – PLAYER

A record that is very close to being overturned, and is highly likely to happen, involves Lionel Messi, Argentina’s main playmaker and one of the best players of this century.

With his selection in search of the third championship, the “Flea” (nickname of shirt 10) will be able to play two more matches: one is the semifinal; the other, the final or the match for third place.

Messi currently has 24 appearances in World Cups (this is his fifth tournament). The record holder is the German Lothar Matthäus (world champion in 1990), with 25 games.

That is, if Messi plays twice more, which is feasible, even likely, he will become the player with the most appearances in the World Cup at the age of 35.

TWICE CHAMPION TECHNICIAN

The Italian Vitorio Pozzo (1886-1968), with the selection of his country, is the only coach to win two World Cups, in Italy-1934 and in France-1938.

Now, Frenchman Didier Deschamps, 54, has the opportunity to match Pozzo, as he led Les Bleus (Blues) at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Deschamps also has a Cup title as a player on his resume. He was France’s captain to the home win in 1998.

ARTILLERA CUP

With the quarter-final matches closed, the Qatar Cup has scored 157 goals.

In the current format (32 teams), which has existed since 1998, the editions that registered the most balls in the net were France-1998 and Brazil-2014: 171 goals each.

This mark only has a real chance of falling if the semifinalists are not “economical” in the games they have left in the Middle East.

PENALTY MATCHES

The Qatar Cup has already had four spots decided on penalty kicks, in Croatia x Japan, Morocco x Spain, Croatia x Brazil and Argentina x Netherlands.

This number is the same as the World Cups in Italy-1990, Germany-2006, Brazil-2014 and Russia-2018.

With another penalty shootout, the current tournament becomes the isolated record holder.

NO GOAL DRAWS

The Qatar World Cup equaled, with the 0-0 between Spain and Morocco in the round of 16, the highest number of matches without opening scoring in a Cup edition, seven.

Before, four World Cups had seven goalless draws, Spain-1982, Germany-2006, South Africa-2010 and Brazil-2014.

The other 0-0 in Qatar, in addition to the duel between Spaniards and Moroccans, were Denmark vs. Tunisia, Mexico vs. Poland, Morocco vs. Croatia, Uruguay vs. South Korea, England vs. USA and Croatia vs. Belgium.

HISTORICAL GUNNER

This is an unlikely record to be reached, however, when it comes to those who have a chance, the hypothesis cannot be ruled out.

Klose tops the list of players who have scored the most goals in World Cups. The German has 16. Messi has ten for Argentina, and Mbappé has nine for France.

Does it work?

Among the brands that fell at the World Cup in Qatar, two stand out and deserve to be remembered.

GOALS IN FIVE CUPS

The Portuguese ace Cristiano Ronaldo, when scoring from the penalty spot against Ghana, became the only player to score at least one goal in five editions of the World Cup.

He is ahead of Pelé, Messi and the Germans Seeler and Klose, who scored in four editions of the World Cup.

MORE MATCHES – SELECTION

Brazil and Germany started the Qatar Cup, each with 109 matches in World Cups.

As the Brazilian team went further, until the quarterfinals (the Germans were in the group stage), it isolated itself at the top of this ranking, with 114 games.