Other Games - 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup Edition (+ warm-up matches): Villa-watch

[PeterWithesShin]

Moderately QI, in the last 5 years Mbappe has scored in 4 friendlies, South Africa, Scotland, Luxembourg and Brazil. If you go back an extra month you can add Wales.

For other sad stat fans like me

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_goals_scored_by_Kylian_Mbapp%C3%A9

[Goldie.7]

All rigged to setup a France vs Argentina final....again.

[cdbearsfan]

That's because of the rise of the Nations League and the associated decrease in the number of qualifying games. So M'bappe plays fewer games against San Marino/Andorra type teams than Henry did.

I stand to be corrected, but the Nations League games fill the "pointless friendlies" bit of the calendar rather than removing any qualifiers for tournaments.

Nations League does both. But it has grown since it was first introduced with the addition of quarter-finals and promotion/relegation playo-offs. Net result is that the actual qualifying is now groups of four or five, when it used to be groups of five or six. France, for instance, only played six qualifying matches.

[PeterWithesShin]

The top 4 FIFA ranked teams are Argentina, Spain, France and England. Which could well be the 4 semi-finalists.

[cdbearsfan]

Not that surprising as FIFA seeded it so that the top four would be kept apart until the semi-finals (if they won their groups).

[PeterWithesShin]

I'd imagine like most seeded events it's quite rare the top 4 all make it to the semis.

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah, fair enough.

[PeterWithesShin]

Using Wimbledon as it's on, how many of the top 4 seeds in the men and women singles are in the semis?

[PeterWithesShin]

That's a genuine question as I don't follow it at all but saw the British fella was still in.

[cdbearsfan]

Seems like it happened at French Open and that's the first time it has happened in a GS since 2019.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1452458166235258&id=100044132661489

[PeterWithesShin]

I follow tennis so much I don't even know 3 of them in that pic.

[Brazilian Villain]

All rigged to setup a France vs Argentina final....again.

Looking forward to it, should be a cracker.

[Pete3206]

All rigged to setup a France vs Argentina final....again.

Rigged to make Morocco disappointingly poor?