Russia 2018 by numbers

• 8 – nations to have won the World Cup: Uruguay, Italy, Germany/west Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, France and Spain.

• 5 – the last five tournaments have been won by five different countries, from France in 1998 through Brazil, Italy and Spain to Germany four years ago.

• 5 – Brazil’s record tally of titles. Germany, whose 2014 triumph added to West Germany’s three, have the chance to equal that mark.

• 2 – only two countries have ever retained the trophy, though: Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962.

• 13 – Just Fontaine’s goal tally for France in 1958 remains a World Cup record.

• 3 – Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick in the final in 1966 is a unique World Cup achievement. It was a “perfect hat-trick” to boot – a header for his first goal, followed by right foot and then left.

• 17 – Brazil great Pele is the tournament’s youngest ever goalscorer, announcing himself against Wales in 1958 aged 17 years and 239 days.

• 2,808km – distance by road between the venues in Sochi and Ekaterinburg – both Peru and Sweden face successive matches in those two stadia, with Sweden’s coming just four days apart and Peru’s five.

• 749km – total distance by road covering Colombia’s three group games , from Saransk to Kazan and then Samara.

• 45 – Egypt’s goalkeeper and captain Essam El-hadary will become the World Cup’s oldest ever player if he features in Russia, breaking the record of Faryd Mondragon who was 43 when he played for Colombia in 2014.

• 21 – this will be the 21st staging of the World Cup.