2026 World Cup Group Stage by the Numbers
By: AT
In the first matchday of the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage, players, coaches, match officials and supporters made history in many ways, from match appearances to goalscoring to match attendances. Below includes a number of figures representing interesting facts and historical achievements from the first matchday of the tournament.
4: World Cup tournaments that featured Alireza Faghani as a match official. After officiating the France-Senegal match, the Iranian-Australian referee became the first to officiate in some capacity in at least one match across four tournaments. Faghani began as a fourth official in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and then as a lead-referee in the 2018 (in Russia), 2022 (in Qatar) and 2026 World Cups. Some of the matches Faghani officiated as the lead-referee include: Germany vs Mexico (0-1) in the 2018 group stage; France vs Argentina (4-3) in the 2018 round of 16; Belgium vs England (2-0) in the 2018 third-place match; Brazil vs Serbia (2-0) in 2022 group stage; and Portugal vs Uruguay (2-0) in the 2022 group stage.
11: Hat-tricks that Argentine forward Lionel Messi has scored while on international duty, the most recent of which occurred in that nation’s opening World Cup match against Algeria, a 3-0 victory. The 38-year-old holds the record for most hat-tricks at the international level in the 21st century, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, X10), Ali Mabkhout (United Arab Emirates, X9), Erling Haaland (Norway, X6), Chan Siu Ki (Hong Kong, X6) and Robert Lewandowski (Poland, X6).
16: Goals that Messi has scored at the World Cup after completing his hat-trick against Algeria. The Argentine currently boasts as many World Cup goals as forward German forward Miroslav Klose — both players jointly hold the record for most goals scored in men’s World Cup history. Messi is one goal behind Brazilian women’s forward Marta, who has scored a record 17 goals at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
78: Goals scored throughout the first matchday of the World Cup group stage. Germany led the 48 nations with seven goals against World Cup debutants Curaçao, followed by Sweden’s five goals scored in its 5-1 victory against Tunisia.
281,223: Total number of supporters who attended the World Cup matches on June 16, 2026. The matches that took place were the following: France vs Senegal; Iraq vs Norway; Argentina vs Algeria; and Austria vs Jordan. Those involving France and Argentina had the majority share of that attendance figure: the former had a match attendance of 80,545 in East Rutherford, New Jersey; the latter had an attendance of 69,045 in Kansas City, Missouri.
