France and Argentina lifted the curtain on the round of 16 in sensational style, playing out a World Cup classic as the Europeans plucked a 4-3 win from Kazan.
Teenager Kylian Mbappe stole the headlines by winning a penalty and scoring twice, but the match also featured two stunning goals, crunching tackles, and fervour in the stands.
Here are the best statistics from Saturday's seven-goal thriller:
0: Number of World Cup knockout wins (excluding penalty shootouts) for Argentina against European teams on European soil in nine attempts.
1: Only one of the eight shots on target didn't go in. That was Lionel Messi's off-balance effort after 85 minutes.
2: Assists by Messi against France. He's the first Argentinian to produce that many in a World Cup match since Diego Maradona in 1986.
3: Argentina loses its first competitive match when scoring three or more goals. It's also the first time a team has lost despite scoring three goals in a World Cup match since the USSR was beaten 4-3 after extra-time by Belgium in 1986.
4 - Lionel Messi is the only player to have delivered an assist in each of the last four World Cups. Divine. pic.twitter.com/5fkk1GVZ3z
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) June 30, 2018
5: Number of take-ons completed by Mbappe in the opening stanza. It was more than all of the other 21 players on the pitch combined.
6: Blaise Matuidi was the dirtiest player on the pitch with six fouls. He will miss the quarter-final through suspension.
8: Total knockout-round outings for Messi at World Cups. He hasn't scored in any of them.
15: In Jorge Sampaoli's 15th match in charge of Argentina, he chose his 15th different starting XI.
16 - Since the introduction of the round of 16 in 1986, France have always made it past that stage whenever they’ve reached it (1986, 1998, 2006, 2014). Background.#WorldCup #FRAARG #FRA pic.twitter.com/5EQIKPpYdq
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 30, 2018
19: Mbappe pocketed a brace 173 days shy of his 20th birthday. He's the first teenager to score at least twice in a World Cup match since Brazilian icon Pele against Sweden in 1958.
30.2 - Angel Di Maria's goal at 30.2 yards is the longest range goal scored at the 2018 World Cup so far. Heavenly. #ARG #FRAARG #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/FiAojynXnx
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 30, 2018
80: Didier Deschamps hit the fourscore milestone in games as France manager, surpassing the previous record held by Raymond Domenech.
91: Touches by Nicolas Otamendi. The player with the second highest number of touches on the pitch was right-back and goalscorer Gabriel Mercado with 87.
147: Javier Mascherano retired from international football after the match as the most-capped player in Argentina's history.
1998: Mbappe is the first French player to score two or more goals in a World Cup knockout match since Zinedine Zidane in the 1998 World Cup final. Mbappe was born 161 days after that triumph.










