By Paul Giblin
MOSCOW, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The end of the group stage on Thursday left World Cup statisticians with a few numbers to ponder on the first day without a match since the tournament kicked off in Moscow on June 14. Since the whistle blew at the start of Russia's 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia, there have been 48 games.
Those 48 games have produced a total of 122 goals at an average of 2.54 goals per game, with England's 6-2 win over Panama and Belgium's 5-2 victory against Tunisia, the two highest scoring games to date.
Despite England striker Harry Kane topping the race for the Golden Boot with five goals, Belgium are the top scoring side so far in Russia with nine goals (five against Tunisia, three against Panama and one against England).
Meanwhile Panama's defeats to England, Belgium and Tunisia, means they go home with the worst defensive record in the World Cup, after conceding 11 goals in three games. The South Koreans were the most ill-disciplined team in the group stage, committing 63 fouls for which they were shown 10 yellow cards.
Panama however, had the worst disciplinary record with their robust display earning them 11 yellow cards in three games.
At the other end of the scale Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia were the 'goodie-goodies' of the group stage with just one yellow card each from their three games. The Spanish committed just 29 fouls, which is actually one more than the Japanese who conceded just 28 but who have picked up four bookings in the process.
Meanwhile the first 48 matches were watched by a total of 2,178,894 people at an average of 45,394 fans per game.
