World Cup 2026 Statistics – Day 6 (June 16)
Picture : Mbappé became the first captain in French history to score a brace at the World Cup.
France vs Senegal 3-1 (Group I)
*France have won each of their seven opening matches under Didier Deschamps in major tournaments (4 in World Cup + 3 in Euro).
*France have scored at least two goals in their last five World Cup matches: their best run in the competition since June 1954 – June 1958 (7 such games in a row).
*Thanks to his brace, Kylian Mbappé overtook Olivier Giroud to become the France’s all-time leading goal-scorer.
Mbappé has played his 99th game for the national team and scored his 57th and 58th goals. Giroud has scored 57 goals in 137 matches.
*Mbappé is the youngest player (27 years and 5 months) to become the sole all-time leading scorer for the French national team since Just Fontaine on 11 November 1958, against Portugal (25 years and 2 months).
*Olivier Giroud (Lille) becomes the first active player to be overtaken in the French all-time top scorers ranking since Eugène Maës (Sète) in 1928 (surpassed by Paul Nicolas).
*Mbappé became the first captain in French history to score a brace at the World Cup.
*Mbappé is now the joint-fourth best World Cup goal-scorer (14 goals), along with Gerd Müller, behind only Miroslav Klose (16), Lionel Messi (16), and Ronaldo (15).
Mbappé left behind him Just Fontaine (13) and Pelé (12).
*Mbappé has scored his last 13 World Cup goals from the 60th minute onwards.
*Mbappé became also new top scorers for France in major tournaments – 15 goals (14 in World Cup, 1 in Euro).
He surpassed Michel Platini (14) and Just Fontaine (13).
*18 goals for France in World Cup history have been scored by Paris Saint-Germain players (including a goal of Barcola in this game), equaling the club record (18 for Reims).
*Bradley Barcola is the 2nd fastest player (2 minutes 11 seconds) to score after his debut with Les Bleus in the World Cup behind Bernard Lacombe (31 seconds).
*France and Senegal together have 33 players born in France in their squad for this World Cup: 23 on the Blues side, 10 on the Lions of Teranga side.
Iraq vs Norway 1-4 (Group I)
*Only in its 7th game at the 2026 World Cup, the Asian Confederation suffered its first defeat.
*Erling Haaland became the first player to score two goals in a World Cup match for Norway.
*Haaland has scored in each of his last 11 competitive appearances for Norway dating back to November 2024 (world record).
*First of Haaland’s (who represent Manchester City) goals became the 200th goal scored for an English league club in the history of the World Cup.
*For the first time in 68 years, a World Cup has seen 2 players score a brace in the first half of their debut match in the competition.
The last time this happened was at the 1958 edition, with Florencio Amarilla (Paraguay) and Just Fontaine (France).
In this edition, Folarin Balogun (USA) and Erling Haaland (Norway) achieved the same.
*Iraq have scored their second goal in the history of the World Cup, 40 years 9 days after their first (Radhi against Belgium in 1986).
This is the second-longest gap between a team’s first and second goals in the tournament’s history, behind Norway (56 years 28 days, from 1938 to 1994) and ahead of Peru (39 years 333 days from 1930 to 1970).
Argentina vs Algeria 3-0 (Group J)
*Argentina have won their last seven matches against African nations at the World Cup.
*For the first time in the history of the World Cup, the reigning champion started its title defense with a hat-trick and a clean sheet.
*Algeria equaled their heaviest World Cup defeat with that against Spain on 12 June 1986 (also 0-3).
*Lionel Messi has played his milestone 200th game for Argentina becoming the third player in world football history to reach this figure, after:
Soh Chin Ann (Malaysia, 217),
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, 228).
*At 38 years and 357 days old, Messi became the second oldest Argentine player to ever play in a World Cup match, after Ángel Labruna – 39 years 260 days (vs Northern Ireland, 1958).
*Messi became Argentina’s oldest goal-scorer in World Cups, surpassing Martín Palermo who scored at 36 years 227 days in 2010 against Greece.
*Messi became the 3rd oldest goal-scorer overall in the World Cup, after:
Roger Milla (Cameroon), 42 years 39 days in 1994,
Pepe (Portugal), 39 years 283 days in 2022.
Messi ousted, maybe temporarily, Cristiano Ronaldo from podium (37 years 292 days in 2022 – he will take 2nd place if scores here).
*Messi became the 2nd player in the history of the World Cup to score a hat-trick while being the reigning world champion.
The only precedent: Kylian Mbappé in the 2022 World Cup final, just against Messi’s Argentina.
*Messi has scored nine times at the World Cup since Cristiano Ronaldo last did.
Austria vs Jordan 3-1 (Group J)
*Austria recorded their first World Cup victory since 19 June 1990, against the United States (2-1).
*Marko Arnautovic (37 years and 1 month old) became the second oldest goal-scorer in a major tournament for Austria, behind Ivica Vastic at Euro 2008 (38 years and 8 months).
*Arnautovic became the oldest player to play in a World Cup for Austria, surpassing Michael Konsel (36 years and 3 months).
*Arnautovic’s goal for Jordan, disallowed by VAR for a handball, is only the 2nd goal disallowed for a handball by VAR in the history of the World Cup. The first was Steven Berghuis’s own goal for the Netherlands against Qatar in the 2022 World Cup.
*Jordan became the 4th team in the history of the World Cup to concede an own goal (Yazan Al-Arab) in their opening match.
The previous ones were:
Australia (Curran, 1974),
South Africa (Issa, 1998),
Bosnia-Herzegovina (Kolasinac, 2014).
*Two players scored an own goal on the same day at the World Cup (Aymen Hussein with Iraq, Yazan Abu Arab with Jordan) for the first time since 27 June 2018 (Edson Álvarez with Mexico, Yann Sommer with Switzerland).
*Moroccan Jamal Sellami became the first African coach to lead an Asian confederation nation (Jordan) in World Cup history.