Qatar 2022 has been a World Cup of shocks during the group stage with Germany out and Australia in the knockouts. But who were the top-performing strikers over the first round?
Fans saw 120 goals scored across the 64 ties in the eight groups that made up the opening round. England and Spain were the top-scoring teams on nine goals each ahead of France, Germany and Portugal on six. Yet of those, only England and Portugal topped their groups.
England, Spain and France also have a player in the co-lead for the Golden Boot with the Netherlands and Ecuador. Enner Valencia offered a tournament-high 75% of his nation’s goals in the opening round. But the 33-year-old could not prevent Ecuador’s elimination.
Valencia emerged as one of the World Cup’s best strikers in the group stage
Valencia emerged as one of the World Cup’s best strikers from the off in the group stage. He led Ecuador to a 2-0 opening game win over the host nation, Qatar, with a dominant performance. The experienced forward provided both goals and could have scored more.
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The attacker took his tally to three goals in as many games to secure Ecuador a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands. Only Alvaro Morata for Spain, Dutch forward Cody Gakpo, Kylian Mbappe of France and England star Marcus Rashford also scored three group stage goals.
A total of 18 players from any position found the back of the net twice in the group stage, too. While Morata, Gakpo and Mbappe led the way with goals from open play with three. A further 14 players offered two goals from open play and no player scored two penalties.
Messi took the most shots from those who played at striker in the group stage
Argentina icon Lionel Messi was among the wealth of players to score two goals during the first round in Qatar. The 35-year-old also did so from the most shots taken by a player who featured at striker (13) and the second-most overall to Mbappe (16), per WhoScored data.
Fulham star Aleksandar Mitrovic was the second-most active striker during the group stage of the 2022 World Cup for Serbia. He attempted 10 efforts for two goals, including just one from outside the area. Messi attempted the most shots from distance with four attempts.
Cristiano Ronaldo ranked third among all strikers in the group stage for shots attempted at the World Cup with nine. South Korea’s Cho Gue-Sung and Canada’s Jonathan David each attempted eight. Although the 24-year-old and 22-year-old only featured in two matches.
Australia’s Mitchell Duke, Olivier Giroud of France and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski each attempted seven shots. While Senegal’s Boulaye Dia, Marco Asensio of Spain and Michy Batshuayi for Belgium tried their luck with six shots, yet they each only scored one goal.
Gue-Sung dominated in the air as South Korea reached the Round of 16
Gue-Sung also dominated in the air to help South Korea qualify for the Round of 16 to face Brazil. The 24-year-old won a group stage-high 15 aerial duels among all strikers in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. He also failed to win possession during seven of his 22 contests.
Michael Estrada of Ecuador ranked second for aerial duels won by a striker in the opening round. He won 13 of his 28 attempts, ahead of Lewandowski (12 of 25), Morocco’s Yousef En-Nesyri (11 of 18), Australia forward Duke (10 of 19) and Wales’ Kieffer Moore (9 of 14).
Ronaldo also won seven of his eight aerial duels for Portugal for the best success rate for a striker. Saudi Arabia star Saleh Al Shehri won six of his 13 duels ahead of Mitrovic (5 of 13), Costa Rica ace Anthony Contreras (5 of 11), Dia (5 of 11) and Eric Choupo-Moting (5 of 9).
Messi made magic with his feet with the highest volume of successful dribbles
Messi also made magic with his feet with the highest volume of successful dribbles by a striker at Qatar 2022. The Argentina icon beat opposition players with eight of his 16 runs attempted over three appearances. He played all 270 minutes that were on offer to him.
Yet Mohammed Kudus ranked second for successful dribbles by a striker during the group stage despite only playing one World Cup fixture in the position. The Ghana star featured in an advanced role against Uruguay and completed five of his seven attempted dribbles.
Lewandowski also completed five dribbles but from 11 attempts. Qatar’s Akram Afif (3/7) and Cameroon star Choupo-Moting (3/5) ranked in fourth ahead of Valencia, Harry Kane, Randal Kolo Muani (2/5), En-Nesyri (2/4), Luis Suarez, Estrada (2/3) and Josh Sargent (2/2).
Messi and Kane proved to be creative at striker in the World Cup group stage
Messi and Kane also used their time on the ball at striker to create for others during the group stage at the World Cup. But England will hope to see Kane also use his time on the ball to score. The Tottenham Hotspur ace is yet to score and has only taken on four shots.
For key passes from striker, Messi led the way for Argentina with nine. Qatar’s Afif, Henry Martin of Mexico and Germany’s Thomas Muller created five goalscoring chances. Kane and Lewandowski both fashioned four chances to help their nations make the knockouts.
Ronaldo, Moore and Martin Braithwaite each recorded three key passes with Portugal, Wales and Denmark respectively. Mitrovic was one of 11 strikers to create two chances.
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