Qatar Data: France and England show their class to set up mouth-watering quarter-final

One milestone in French football was already clear before the game - Hugo Lloris was about to play his 142nd game for the national team and his 17th at the World Cup. He joined the existing record holders in both stats and will probably stand alone in a few days. Lloris contributed to France's continued run at the tournament with a first-half save against Piotr Zielinski. The French opened the scoring in the first half to secure a comfortable 3-1 victory.

Let’s start with a look at the expected goals. You can see that after a better start by the French, the Poles took the initiative and in the 38th minute, Zielinski had that huge chance. The French then added three goals, but the Poles still finished the game with a higher xG value thanks to a penalty at the end.

The leading scorer of the French national team is now Olivier Giroud. He scored his 52nd goal for the national team, taking over Thiery Henry. From Giroud’s heatmap, you can see that the Poles played intelligently against the French striker, who spent most of his time on the right side of the midfield in the match, away from the danger area. That was until their defensive lapse in concentration which allowed him room to score.

If there's one thing that shouldn't be doubted, it's that Giroud will one day be replaced by Kylian Mbappé in the French national team's scoring chart. He scored two goals on the day and has now scored a total of nine at the World Cup, surpassing Pelé. And Mbappé's other statistics from the match against Poland unsurprisingly demonstrate that he is the key man of the French team.

Poland right back Matty Cash had an interesting day as we can see from his heat map. His movement along the sideline was far from being limited to defensive work, as he was still able to send dangerous crosses into the box from his flank. On the other hand, even with this bold approach, Mbappé had more space to punish the Polish defence from Cash's side and it was the Frenchman who had the last laugh as Poland bowed out of the World Cup. 

See France vs Poland at Flashscore

England broke the game against Senegal apart within ten minutes late in the first half. Ironically, the AFCON champions had the better chances until then, but goals from Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane gave England control. Henderson became England's oldest goalscorer at a World Cup since 1958.

Let's start by looking at the momentum of the match. From it we can see that moments before the goals were scored, the Lions of Teranga had their best passage of the opening 45 minutes. In the second half, however, England were in control for most of it.

Jude Bellingham assisted England’s first goal and he was a key part of the second goal. At just nineteen, he became the youngest England assist-maker in World Cup history.

And finally, let’s see where England placed their shots. It shows that all three of their shots in the penalty area ended in goals. Harry Kane, who scored just before the break, now has eleven goals in major tournaments. That is the most by any Englishman in history. England now have twelve goals in this World Cup - no team in Qatar has more as it stands!

See England vs Senegal at Flashscore

That’s it for Qatar Data today. You can look forward to more analysis of the next two last 16 matches and the upcoming quarter-final between England and France. We hope you have a brilliant start to the week.