Just 17 games into the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the tournament has the same number of own goals that occurred throughout the World Cup in 2014!
In quite a bizarre turn of events, Morocco, Australia, Nigeria, and Poland all scored own goals during their opening match of the tournament, while Egypt also has an own goal to its name after the first match in the second leg of group stage fixtures. This effectively means that after just one game in the second group stage match, own goals lead the current goal tally with a total of 5. To make matters worse, two of those matches were decided by the unfortunate error.
We are now just one goal away from the record for most own goals in a single World Cup. The current record was set in 1998 when the players found their own net on 6 occasions. With 47 games left in the tournament, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there was a new record set for the unwanted stat by the end of the tournament.
There have been a total of 46 own goals in World Cup history, out of which 36 have been in the group stages. In fact, only 2 own goals since 1982 have occurred after the group stages.
Here is a recap of the own goals that have taken place during this World Cup:
June 15: Aziz Bouhaddouz (Morocco) vs Iran (90+5’)
The first own goal of the tournament, by Morocco’s Aziz Bouhaddouz, was arguably the most unfortunate. It came five minutes into stoppage time in the second half and with next to no time left on the clock it gave Iran a 1-0 victory in its opening match.
June 16: Aziz Behich (Australia) vs France (81’)
Another late goal that ultimately decided the game, this goal was originally given to France’s Paul Pogba, but later “awarded” to Australia’s Aziz Behich. The goal gave France a 2-1 lead over Australia which eventually resulted in a victory for the French.
June 16: Oghenekaro Etebo (Nigeria) vs Croatia (32’)
This was the second own goal on the same day. It gave Croatia a 1-0 lead over Nigeria. A pretty header by Mario Mandzukic deflected off of Etebo into the net in the first half. Croatia went on to win 2-0.
June 19: Thiago Cionek (Poland) vs Nigeria (37’)
This goal was the biggest deflection among the own goals so far. After Idrissa Gana Gueye’s shot hit Poland’s Thiago Cionek it completely altered the direction of the shot and the ball snuck in past the Polish keeper to put Senegal up 1-0. Senegal were the eventual winners with a 2-1 score at full-time.
June 19: Ahmed Fathi (Egypt) vs Russia (47’)
This was the third own goal that opened the scoring. Fathi tried to slide to break up a cross, however, the ball took a weird bounce and ended up in his own net to put Russia up 1-0. Russia went on to win the match in a convincing manner with a final score of 3-1.