🔥 क्या आपका मनोरंजन नहीं है? 68 साल में सबसे बड़ा विश्व कप!

The first matchday of the 2026 World Cup group stage has officially been wrapped up since last night. Alongside numerous surprises — including Spain and Portugal dropping points against underdog teams — the tournament in North America has so far stood for one thing above all: plenty of goals! 

A total of 75 goals were scored in 24 matches, an impressive average of 3.1 per game. According to calculations by Brazilian newspaper 'O Globo', such a high figure at the start of a World Cup was last reached in 1958 — 68 years ago!

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The tournament in Sweden marked the first World Cup with a format at least somewhat similar to today’s, including its group-stage matches. Back then, Brazil and its 17-year-old wonderkid Pelé were crowned champions.

Since then, the average of 3 goals per match on the opening matchday has only been exceeded at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The 49 goals in 16 games amounted to an average of 3.06, which is slightly lower than the current figure.

Even if the expansion to 48 teams is certainly open to plenty of debate, we really can’t complain about boredom so far!

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.