World Cup hack: 7 facts you need to know to impress your friends

1. WHO HAS WON THE WORLD CUP?

Brazil are top of the table, with five tournament wins.

Their last was in 2002. They hosted in 2014, but their home tournament came to a crashing end with a 7-1 semifinal humiliation by Germany.

Italy and Germany are close behind on four World Cup wins.

No country outside Europe or South America has won the tournament, and victories for Germany, Spain and Italy in the past three finals mean Europe leads with 11 victories to South America's nine.

2. WHO HAS SCORED THE MOST GOALS?

German goal machine Miroslav Klose tops the chart with 16 in four World Cups. He retired in 2016, but will be going to Russia as a member of his country's back-room staff.

Brazilian Ronaldo is second with 15 goals, eight of which were scored in their 2002 triumph.

Miroslav Klose is the top scorer in World Cup history with 16 goals, ahead of the likes of Pele, Gerd Muller and Gary Lineker.

France's Just Fontaine holds the record for the most goals in a single tournament. He scored 13 in six games in 1958.

3. WHAT ABOUT CURRENT PLAYERS?

Of the players to have scored 10 or more World Cup goals, only Germany's Thomas Muller will be heading to Russia as a player.

To join his compatriot Klose at the top of the list, Muller would have to beat his previous record of five goals in a single tournament.

Colombia forward James Rodriguez won the Golden Boot last time out, so a repeat performance this time will put him among the best.

Muller leads the list of World Cup scorers that are still playing, ahead of the likes of Messi, Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo, whose record equals that of Mexican defender Rafael Marquez

Marquez, the only defender on the list, is going into his fifth World Cup for Mexico with the same scoring record as Ronaldo.

4. TEAMS AREN'T SHOOTING AS MUCH AS THEY USED TO.

The last World Cup was a record low in terms of shots per game since at least 1966 - the first year football experts Opta hold data for.

Despite this, the average of 2.7 goals in games in 2014 was the highest since Spain 1982.

There appears to have been a decline in the number of shots from long range.

A good example is comparing the last World Cup final with the first one for which Opta has shots data - England's triumph in 1966.

In the 1966 World Cup final there were 77 shots, nearly four times more than in the 2014 final when there were just 20

In the 1966 final there were twice as many shots from outside the box than inside, but of the 20 shots in the 2014 final, more were taken from inside the penalty area.

5. ENGLAND MAY STRUGGLE BUT THE PREMIER LEAGUE DOMINATES.

Since that win in 1966, England have got past the quarterfinals only once. But that hasn't stopped other countries filling their squads with players from the English leagues.

Even with players such as Leroy Sane, Marcos Alonso and David Luiz left at home, the English Premier League still supplied more players than any other.

There were 130 World Cup players registered to clubs from England's top three leagues when the squads were announced, compared with 81 from Spain and 67 from German sides. Uruguay, Panama, Saudi Arabia and Russia are the only countries that have not called up any players based in England.

England is also the one country where all 23 players in the squad are from teams in the same league. Sweden and Senegal are at the other end of the spectrum - they're the only two countries without any players from their local league.

6. HOW DOES THE HOST TEAM DO?

No one in Brazil will need reminding of the two times they've hosted the World Cup. Losing the title to Uruguay in 1950 and going out 7-1 to Germany in 2014 were national embarrassments.

But most other countries perform better when they are boosted by home support.

Russia will hope that they can follow the trend and get out of their group alongside one of Uruguay, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

If they do, South Africa will remain as the only host nation to have been eliminated in the first round.

Six countries - Uruguay, Italy, England, France, Germany and Argentina - have won the trophy as hosts. Only Brazil and Spain have performed more poorly when they were hosting

7. PAYING THE PENALTY.

No World Cup report would be complete without it ending on penalties.

Only one German has ever missed from the spot at a World Cup, and they've won all four shootouts they've been in. Since then they've scored 15 in a row in a record dating back to 1982.

And in a surprise to no one, England are the worst team in World Cup penalty shootout history, having lost three without winning any ... yet.

Italy have also been eliminated in the most cruel way three times, including the 1994 final when star player Roberto Baggio famously blasted the ball over the bar. But their 2006 final win against France probably went some way to repairing Italian feelings about the format.

- BBC