You expected a boring World Cup? We've got 215 goals and the highest-scoring WC ever!

The group stage of the World Cup has come to an end. A total of 72 matches have been played, producing 215 goals - an average of almost three per game!

As we await the start of the knockout rounds, this is the perfect moment to look back at the key statistics from the first 17 days of the tournament in North America.

So far, this has been the highest-scoring World Cup in history, which is hardly surprising given that the number of participants has increased from 32 to 48.

The biggest victory belonged to Germany, who crushed Curacao 7-1, while co-hosts Canada defeated Qatar 6-0.

There were also two five-goal wins, with Portugal and Senegal both recording 5-0 victories over Uzbekistan and Iraq, respectively.

Who is the best? Africa!

Eleven teams saw all three of their group-stage matches finish with at least three goals.

Those teams were Germany, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, New Zealand, Iraq, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. Of those, only the first six advanced to the Round of 32.

There are plenty more interesting statistics that could prove useful for bettors during the knockout stage. Canada took the most corners (35), followed by Uruguay (26) and England (24).

England and Canada recorded the most throw-ins (49 each), with Egypt next on 46. Uruguay were caught offside the most times (14), ahead of Colombia (13) and Brazil (9).

Haiti committed the most fouls (55), followed by Ghana and Panama (46 each), while South Africa collected the most cards (13), ahead of Qatar (12) and Paraguay (11).

Interestingly, Turkey attempted the most shots with 71 but still failed to qualify for the knockout stage, largely because they failed to score in their opening two matches.

Belgium followed with 70 attempts, while Colombia registered 61 and will have the opportunity to improve those numbers in the Round of 32.

It is also worth noting that the three youngest squads at the tournament all progressed to the knockout rounds: Ivory Coast (average age 25.38), Ecuador (25.65), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (26.04). On the other hand, the two oldest teams - Panama (30.08) and Iran (29.85) - were both eliminated in the group stage.

WORLD CUP - KNOCKOUT STAGE

Sunday

22.00: (5.80) S.Africa (3.70) Canada (1.73)

Monday

20.00: (1.73) Brazil (3.60) Japan (5.20)

23.30: (1.40) Germany (4.60) Paraguay (8.00)