The 2014 World Cup in Brazil enters the exciting round of 16 today. 32 countries took part in the first round, which kicked off June 12, and after 48 group stage matches, we are left with sixteen nations.
The next round is due to start Saturday with the host nation, the Selecao, taking on Jorge Sampaoli's Chile, followed by yet another all-South American clash between Colombia and Uruguay, later on that day.
However, before the last 16 stage launches, let us check out some of the interesting facts that the world has seen so far from football's greatest tournament.
Argentina, Brazil, and Germany superstars Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Thomas Muller are the joint top-scorers of the competition, tied at four a piece. Muller though has an advantage over the other two in the chase for the Golden Boot as he boasts one assist compared to Neymar and Messi’s zero registered.
This World Cup has seen an astonishing 136 goals netted with Netherlands leading the table as the country with most goals (10).
Cameroon, Honduras, and Iran have registered the least number of goals from all of the 32 countries, netting once before crashing out in the group stages.
Australia rank number one as the country with the most goals conceded (7).
Belgium, Mexico, and Costa Rica boast the best defense at the World Cup, conceding the least number of goals (1).
The fastest goal of the tournament so far is Clint Dempsey's 30th second strike in the Ghana-USA clash, making it the fifth-fastest goal of the World Cup history.
Other goalscoring records:
- World Cup hat-tricks: 2 (Thomas Muller, Xherdan Shaqiri)
- Total number of braces: 11
- Latest goal in a match: Silvestre Varela (90 + 5)
- Most goals scored in a match: Switzerland 2-5 France
- Biggest margin wins: Spain 1-5 Netherlands, Germany 4-0 Portugal, Cameroon 0-4 Croatia
Belgium's Thibaut Courtois, Costa Rica's Keylor Navas, France's Hugo Lloris, Germany's Manuel Neuer, Nigeria's Vincent Enyeama and Mexico's Guilermo Ochoa are this year's goalkeepers with the most number of clean sheets (2).
Argentina, Netherlands, Colombia, and Belgium are the only teams that won all three of their group stage matches.
Australia, Cameroon, and Honduras are the only three teams to have lost all three of their goup stage matches.
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A total of 128 yellow cards have been given over the course of the World Cup's first round, compared to the nine red cards received.
Brazil's Neymar was the first player to pick up a booking, in the tournaments opening game against Croatia, whilst Uruguay's Maxi Pereira was the first player to be sent of in La Celeste's Costa Rica encounter.
Ivory Coast were the nations with the most number of bookings (7) with Argentina, Germany, and Switzerland receiving the least bookings (1).
Azzurri skipper Gianluigi Buffon is making his fourth appearance at a World Cup (2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014) though the Juventus shot-stopped was an unused substitute in France's 1998 tournament.
Mexican veteran Rafael Marquez set a new world record for being the first player to captain his country in four World Cups.
