The FIFA World Cup 2026 knockout stage has already started producing historic numbers, with Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Michael Olise, Erling Haaland and Mexico teenager Gilberto Mora becoming the latest names to dominate the tournament\u2019s statistical headlines. France\u2019s 3-0 win over Sweden was led by another ruthless Mbapp\u00e9 performance, as the French captain scored twice and moved to 18 World Cup goals overall, keeping him close to Lionel Messi\u2019s all-time tally while also becoming the leading scorer in World Cup knockout-stage history with 10 goals. His latest brace also pushed him level in the Golden Boot race and underlined why he remains one of the most decisive players on the biggest stage. But France\u2019s dominance was not only about Mbapp\u00e9, as Michael Olise continued his brilliant creative run by setting up goals and taking his tournament assist tally to five, putting him just one behind Pel\u00e9\u2019s famous single-edition World Cup assist record. For France, this combination of finishing and creativity has made them look like one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament. Elsewhere, Erling Haaland kept Norway\u2019s dream alive by scoring the late winner against Ivory Coast, taking his World Cup tally to five goals in three matches and extending a remarkable run of 25 goals in his last 13 competitive games for Norway. Mexico also had its own special moment as 17-year-old Gilberto Mora became the second-youngest player ever to start a World Cup knockout match, behind only Pel\u00e9, during Mexico\u2019s 2-0 win over Ecuador. Together, these numbers show how World Cup 2026 is becoming a tournament where legends are being chased, old records are being challenged and a new generation is making its mark alongside the game\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The FIFA World Cup 2026 knockout stage has already started producing historic numbers, with Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Michael Olise, Erling Haaland and Mexico teenager Gilberto Mora becoming the latest names to dominate the tournament\u2019s statistical headlines. France\u2019s 3-0 win over Sweden was led by another ruthless Mbapp\u00e9 performance, as the French captain scored twice and moved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449\/revisions\/2450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaynewshours.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}