A thrilling Day 9 of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which saw Brazil and Portugal join France in qualifying for the knockouts. Bruno Fernandes' brace was enough for Portugal to canter past Uruguay, while Brazil needed a late winner from Casemiro to earn their victory over Switzerland. Ghana came out tops in a see-saw contest against South Korea, while Cameroon and Serbia's thrilling 3-3 draw was perhaps the best match of the World Cup so far.
By The Numbers has the best stats from the four World Cup matches played on Monday:
Cameroon 3-3 Serbia
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Despite Cameroon's free-scoring nature in this game, this was their first goal at the World Cup since Joël Matip vs Brazil in 2014... and also their first time ever scoring three goals in a World Cup match.
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Serbia became the first team to score 2 injury-time goals in the first half of a FIFA World Cup game.
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A small consolation for Cameroon was that they ended their 8-game losing streak at the World Cup; this was the second-longest losing streak in tournament history.
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Vincent Aboubakar's physics-defying goal made him the first substitute to score for Cameroon at a World Cup since Roger Milla in 1994. After assisting Eric Choupo-Moting's equaliser, he also became the first substitute to score and assist in the same game for an African nation at a World Cup (since 1966).
Cameroon #CMR is the 3rd African team to come back from 2 goals down to get a result (win or draw) at the #FIFAWorldCup. https://t.co/cxsHScrmBh pic.twitter.com/Wnslnvqfka
- ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 28, 2022
South Korea 2-3 Ghana
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Mohammed Salisu became the first defender to ever score for Ghana at a FIFA World Cup.
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Cho Gue-Sung's incredible brace saw him become the first South Korean player to score more than once in a World Cup match, while also becoming the first ever Asian player to score two headers in a single World Cup game. He also is only the third player ever with multiple goals vs Ghana in World Cup history, joining Cristiano Ronaldo and Clint Dempsey. That's some decent company.
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Mohammed Kudus became the first ever Ghanaian to score multiple goals in a World Cup match, and at the age of 22 years and 118 days, is the second-youngest African player to score twice in a World Cup game (Ahmed Musa, at 21y 254d, scored twice for Nigeria against Argentina in 2014).
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Like Cameroon earlier, this was Ghana's first time scoring three goals in a World Cup match.
The Black Stars of Ghana are a win away from equalling the most wins by an African nation at the #FIFAWorldCup. #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/f7n0nL8Jnl
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) November 28, 2022
Brazil 1-0 Switzerland
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Brazil set a World Cup record by going 17 consecutive group stage games without a defeat (including final and second group rounds from earlier editions), going through to the knockouts for the fourteenth consecutive time.
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Alison Becker in Brazil's goal has had an easy time of it, facing a grand total of zero shots on target so far. This is the first time that Brazil have limited their opponents from their opening group stage games thus (since 1966).
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Casemiro's 83rd minute goal was his second game-winning goal for Brazil scored in the final ten minutes or later (the first being his winner against Ecuador in January that came in injury time).
Casemiro joins the who's who of Brazilian Football as a #FIFAWorldCup goalscorer ��#BRASUI #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/bZt4PZqoAF
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) November 28, 2022
Portugal 2-0 Uruguay
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Portugal joined Poland on 15 wins without a loss while scoring first, the most in World Cup history.
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Portugal had eight shots on goal in the first half and failed to hit the target with any of them - the most of any of their World Cup games.
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Despite Cristiano Ronaldo's efforts to claim a goal, Bruno Fernandes' brace saw him increase his tally of goals for Portugal in 2022 to seven. The next highest? Ronaldo, with three. Curiously enough, this was Bruno's first ever World Cup goal, in his 4th game.
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Bruno Fernandes has been involved in 4 World Cup goals so far (2 goals, 2 assists). No Portuguese player has been involved in more goals from a single edition this century - which includes all of Ronaldo's five World Cups.
(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)