From Luka Modric, Gavi, Yuto Nagamoto and Atiba Hutchison, but also Canada, Spain, and Belgium. These are the facts and records that marked the fourth day of the 2022 World Cup, according to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) where Greece is represented by Manos Staramopoulos.

* Canada...tied with Greece after going 4 World Cup matches (including 3 from 1986) without scoring in their 1-0 loss to Belgium, as happened with the National Greece, between 1994 and 2010. The relative negative record, however, is held by Bolivia, which started its journey to the World Cup with 5 matches without a goal, between 1930 and 1994.

* Luka Modric (Croatia) became the first footballer to play in three different decades in both the European Championship (2008, 2012, 2016, 2021) and the World Cup (2006, 2014, 2018, 2022).

* Three of its first group stage matches ended goalless (Denmark-Tunisia, Mexico-Poland, Morocco-Croatia), which has not happened at a World Cup since 1982 (Italy-Poland, Cameroon-Peru, Northern Ireland- Yugoslavia).

* Two teams from the Asian continent (Saudi Arabia and Japan) defeated two world champions (Argentina and Germany) in the same event for the first time in World Cup history. But there was already one occasion when these two big teams both failed in their opening game (in 1982, Argentina-Belgium 0-1, Germany-Algeria 1-2).

* Germany (1-2 vs. Japan) lost their World Cup opener for the 2nd consecutive time (after 0-1 vs. Mexico in 2018) and 3rd time (including 1-2 vs. Algeria in 1982 ).

* Germany lost a World Cup game in which they led at half-time for the first time since 1978 (2-3 against Austria), having gone unbeaten in their previous 21 such matches before the setback against Japan. Overall, Germany suffered such a defeat for the 3rd time in their World Cup history, starting from 2-4 (after 2-1 at half-time) against Switzerland in 1938).

* Germany have lost two consecutive World Cup games (including 0-2 against South Korea in 2018) for the first time in 40 years (2-3 against Austria in 1978 and 1-2 against Algeria in 1982).

* Germany have conceded both goals from two players from their own league, Ritsu Doan (Freiburg) and Takuna Asano (Bochum). This was only seen in the 1998 World Cup, when England conceded goals from two Romanian players (Petrescu and Moldovan) playing in the English league.

* Yuto Nagamoto became the first Japanese footballer to play in 4 World Cup competitions.

* The first of Spain's 7 goals against Costa Rica was their 100th in World Cups. It is the 6th country to reach this point, after Brazil (229), Germany (227), Argentina (138), Italy (128) and France (124).

* The Spain vs Costa Rica match was the first World Cup match with 3 starting players under 20 (Gavi, Pedri and Bennett) since Brazil played against Cameroon in 1994 (Song, Kala and Foe).

1st non-African country with 2 under 20 players.

* Spain became the first non-African team to field 2 under-20 players (Gavi and Pedri) in a World Cup match since Bulgaria v England in 1962 (Zetsev and Asparukhov).

* For the second time in World Cup history, a club (Barcelona) is fielding two under-20 starting players in one match (Gavi and Pedri). The first such club was Canon Yaounde (Cameroon) in 1994 (Kala and Foe).

* At the age of 18 years and 110 days, Gavi became the youngest European player to score in a World Cup match and the 2nd youngest overall behind Pele (in 1958, 17 years 239 days).

* Gavi also became the youngest player to play for Spain in a major international competition (World Cup/Euro). Until the match against Costa Rica, the youngest Spanish debutant in a World Cup match was Cesc Fabregas (19 years and 41 days). Now he has been surpassed by Alejandro Balde (19 years 36 days).

* Spain used 4 under-21 players against Costa Rica (Pedri, Gavi, Balde, Nico Williams). This last happened in a World Cup on June 12, 2002 (for Nigeria against England).

The only European team to do so was Yugoslavia in 1930 (5 players, Milovan, Jaksic, Ivica Beck, Momcilo Djokic, Aleksandean Tirmanic and Dorde Vujandinovic, played in all 3 games in that tournament and were under the age of 21).

* Belgium (1-0 vs. Canada) has won 8 consecutive games in the World Cup group stage and tied Brazil's record streak (which had two 8-match streaks, one between 1986 and 1994, another between 2002 and 2010).

* Atiba Hutchinson (Canada) became the 2nd oldest (39 years 288 days) away player at the World Cup (behind only Roger Milla, 42 years 39 days in 1994) and the 10th oldest (counting goalkeepers).