MERTENS_GOAT

Score: Leverkusen 1-1 Dortmund

Goalscorers Julian Ryerson (5'), Viktor Okoh Boniface (79')

Venue: BayArena

Referee: Daniel Siebert

LINE-UPS

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Lukáš Hrádecký – Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Tah, Edmond Tapsoba – Jeremie Frimpong, Exequiel Palacios (Patrik Schick), Granit Xhaka, Álex Grimaldo – Jonas Hofmann (Amine Adli), Victor Okoh Boniface, Florian Wirtz.

Subs: Matej Kovář, Piero Hincapié, Josip Stanišić, Robert Andrich, Nadiem Amiri, Adam Hložek, Nathan Tella.

Manager: Xabi Alonso

____________________________

Borussia Dortmund

Gregor Kobel - Marius Wolf, Mats Hummels, Nico Schlotterback (Antonios Papado­poulos), Julian Ryerson - Emre Can, Marcel Sabitzer - Marco Reus (Thomas Meunier), Julian Brandt, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (Karim Adeyemi) - Niclas Füllkrug.

Subs: Alexander Meyer, Mateu Morey, Giovanni Reyna, Donyell Malen, Youssoufa Moukoko, Sébastien Haller.

Manager: Edin Terzic

MATCH EVENTS:

0' Welcome to the Topspiel of this matchday, 1st vs 5th going into this game. Leverkusen are 2 points ahead of Bayern and already 10 points ahead of BVB, all these 3 teams are on the same amount of games played.

5' GOOOOAL Dortmund take the lead. Reus and Sabitzer somehow bring the ball to Füllkrug who with his back to the goal leans into the Leverkusen CB who hugs him closely, but the striker holds the ball and lies it off to the side for Ryerson who can score from close distance.

7' Palacios with the 1st chance for Leverkusen, he shoots from 18 meters with his weaker left foot and Kobel catches the ball with no problems.

8' Marius Wolf very importantly clears a dangerous through ball for Grimaldo who would have been through all alone.

12' Yellow Card for Jeremie Frimpong. He stopped Bynoe-Gittens who was dribbling past him.

14' Granit Xhaka with a long shot, but it's again very much straight into Kobel's hands.

21' Granit Xhaka with a proper thundercunt volley from 20 meters but he missed the target by ~1 meter.

24' Wirtz und J. Hofmann have a great chance but Wirtz fumbles it by passing it to Jonas in a height where he can't reach the ball, there are penalty claims from Hofmann but there wasn't much and there's no VAR review.

45+1' Leverkusen score. A low cross by Frimpong travels all the way to the far post where Wirtz buries it via the crossbar, but it's called back by VAR because Boniface was in an offside position in the build up.

Half Time A game with spare highlights so far.

62' Hummels blocks a short range Palacios shot, very good chance for the hosts.

63' Jonas Hofmann off, Amine Adli on.

64' Nico Schlotterbeck off, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens off, Karim Adeyemi on, Antonios Papado­poulos on.

68' Füllkrug with a chance after Palacios loses the ball in his own box.

73' BVB lose the ball as they try to play out from the back from a goal kick. Xhaka shoots from 18 meters and shoots it less than 1 meter over the crossbar.

74' Yellow Card for Palacios for a foul.

77' Yellow Card for Mats Hummels. Far out of his natural habitat he wins the ball but immediately loses it again and fouls Palacios to stop the attack.

79' Exequiel Palacios off, Patrik Schick on.

79' DEAR LORD What an impact! GOOOOAAL for Bayer Leverkusen! Kossonou finds Patrik Schick in the area, the player who is on the pitch for approximately 20 seconds at this point, lays it past Kobel and Boniface only needs to tap it in from 3 meters.

The game is a lot faster now, it's like both teams have woken up all of a sudden.

84' Marco Reus off, Thomas Meunier on. A clear sign by Terzic that he wants to defend for the remaining minutes. For Meunier this is the 1st game of the season if we ignore a 60 minute cameo for the 2nd team in the 3. Liga.

4 minutes are added

90+1' There's a brawl. Yellow cards for Marius Wolf and Odilon Kossounou.

90+5' Meunier crosses and Füllkrug with the chance but the header was very hard to take and goes over the goal.

First of all, this doesn't include goalkeepers.

It includes Premier League, Ligue 1, Eredivisie, Liga Portugal, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and the domestic cup, super cup (and league cup and relegation Play-offs if existent) of these countries.

Furthermore it includes UEFA CL, EL, ECL, also including the qualification rounds for these competitions + UEFA Super Cup + FIFA Club World Cup.

And it includes all National Team games from May 2014 (friendlies in preparation of the World Cup) until July 2023 (Gold Cup) no matter the competition, so also friendlies. Source: transfermarkt.de

​

Minutes Played	Player
44,527	Lionel Messi
42,652	Antoine Griezmann
42,546	Robert Lewandowski
41,110	Sergio Busquets
40,081	Harry Kane
39,913	Nicolás Otamendi
39,822	Cristiano Ronaldo
39,423	Leonardo Bonucci
39,271	Toni Kroos
39,265	Mohamed Salah
38,862	Koke
38,783	Granti Xhaka
38,429	Kevin De Bruyne
37,962	Dusan Tadic
37,961	Raheem Sterling
37,566	Casemiro
37,539	Marquinhos
37,480	César Azpilicueta
37,287	Jordi Alba
37,098	Bernardo Silva
36,849	Raphael Varane
36,775	Jan Vertonghen
36,750	Kalidou Koulibaly
36,680	David Alaba
36,551	Heung-min Son
36,352	Sadio Mané
36,326	Romelu Lukaku
36,080	Luka Modric
36,018	Daley Blind
35,974	Francesco Acerbi
35,758	Thiago Silva
35,502	Fabinho
35,275	Thomas Müller
35,266	Dani Parejo
35,079	João Moutinho
35,001	Joshua Kimmich

This took some time as I looked up and noted down the minutes of a lot more players than just these 36, so if you miss a player let me know and I may be able to tell you how many minutes he played in the considered competitions in the last 5 seasons.

As we know the greed of FIFA knows no borders so we needed more teams and more games for the World Cup at the cost of the format which will be rather crappy compared to how it has been with 32 teams. The World Cup 2026 in Mexico, Canada and USA will be played out between 48 teams which also means that the qualification process isn't how we knew it from recent editions, here I will try to explain the new formats.

The increase of countries who are allowed to participate per Tournament:

UEFA (Europe) 13 ---> 16

CONMEBOL (South America) 4.5 ---> 6

CONCACAF (North America) 3.5 ---> 6 This already includes the 3 host countries, so actually only 3 spots are played out in the qualifiers.

CAF (Africa) 5 ---> 9

AFC (Asia) 4.5 ---> 8

OFC (Oceania) 0.5 ---> 1

the decimal .5 means that there have been intercontinental play-offs for one spot.

If you counted precisely you'll have noticed that the numbers only add up to 46, not 48. These 2 remaining spots are played out in inter-confederation play-offs, more on that later.

Oceania (1 spot)

Let's start with Oceania cause why not? First a short recap on how their format looked like for the Qatar WC: Oceania consisted of 11 National Teams but 5 withdrew due to various reasons such as Covid-19 or well... Tsunamis. There were 2 teams with 4 teams each, but it was all very messy cause in 1 of the 2 groups only 2 teams really played cause the other 2 teams only withdrew after the format and draw was already decided. The 2 best teams from each group played out the winner in one-legged semi-finals and a final. The winner in the end was unsurprisingly New Zealand who faced Costa Rica in the Inter-continental play-off.

2026: The format basically stays the same. There will be 2 groups with 4 teams each, the 4 teams face each other just once and granted teams don't withdraw again there would be a pre-eliminary round where the 4 worst ranked teams play out the 8th spot for the 2 Groups. The 2 best of each group play out the winner again in one-legged semi-finals and a final. This time the winner will not have to play another game but is definitely qualified for the World Cup. And the loser of the final gets a second chance through the back door that is called inter-confederation play-offs, details on that in the last paragraph.

North America (6 spots but only 3 played out through qualification)

For 2022 35 teams competed in the qualification process. In the 1st round 30 teams competed as the 5 highest ranked got a bye to the 3rd round. In 6 groups with 5 teams each, the 1st of each group advanced the the 2nd tound in which the 6 faced each other in 3 head-to-head ties of which the 3 winners advanced to the 3rd round joining the Top-5. These 8 times faced each other twice in a league format, the Top-3 qualified for the WC, the 4th faced New Zealand in the intercontinental play-off.

2026: There will be 32 contestants, the countries seeded 29-32 will have a pre-eliminary round where the 32 plays 29 and 31 plays 30 in two-legged ties. The 30 teams that are left will once again be located into 6 groups with 5 teams each where everyone faces each other once, but this time the 1st AND the 2nd of each group advancs to the last round. These 12 teams are once again divided into different groups: 3 groups with 4 teams each. In this group stage everyone will face the other 3 teams of the group twice, the 3 group winners are qualified for the WC 2026. Of the 3 2nd placed teams in the 3 tables the 2 with the best record in their group will get a 2nd chance and enter the inter-confederation play-offs.

South America (6 spots)

The CONMEBOL encompasses 10 teams, for the WC 2022 all were in 1 big group where everyon faced each other twice and the Top-4 went to Qatar, while the 5th, Perú faced Australia from Asia (lol) in the in the intercontinental play-off.

2026: Nothing changes, the format stays the same but this time the Top-6 qualifies directly for the World Cup 2026 and the 7th gets a 2nd chance through the inter-confederation play-offs.

Asia (8 spots)

AFC started the qualifciation process for 2022 with 46 teams of whom North Korea withdrew a few games in and Qatar dropped out after a certain stage cause they only participated because it also served as qualification for the Asian Cup for which they weren't automatically qualified. In a Pre-eliminary round there were 6 head-to-head ties of the teams ranked 35-46 to knock out 6 already. In the next round the 6 winners as well as the 34 other higher ranked teams formed 8 groups with 5 teams each from which the 8 1sts of the group (excluding Qatar though) as well as the 5 best 2nds of the groups advanced to the 3rd round. These remaining 12 teams played in 2 groups with 6 teams each, everyone faced each other twice and the first 2 of each group went to Qatar, the two 3rds UAE and Australia played out the participant for the Inter-continental play-off (vs Perú) in one game.

2026: There are again 46 teams, this time for real because there's no Asian host. There's again a pre-eliminary round, this time a little bit bigger with not 6 but 10 H2H matchups of the teams ranked 27-46. This leaves the best 36 Asian teams for the next round which are spread into 9 tables á 4 teams. Everyone plays each other twice and the Top-2 of each group advance. These 18 teams are located in 3 groups with 6 teams each. Again everyone faces each other twice and the Top-2 of each group advance, namely directly to North America. But there are still 2 spots left, right?

The 6 teams which rank 3rd and 4th on the 3 groups advance and form yet another 2 tables with 3 teams each (this is ridiculous imo). Everyone faces everyone once in a neutral venue. The two teams which top their group go to the World Cup 2026. The two 2nds face each other in a two-legged tie to determine the team which is allowed to enter the inter-confederation play-offs.

Africa (9 spots)

For Qatar 54 countries (here you can actually say countries and it's not wrong I think) contested for the 5 spots. In a brutal pre-eliminary round the 14 teams ranked from 27-40 were drawn against the teams from 41-54 and faced each other in 2-legged H2H ties to determine the 14 teams who are allowed to advance. Ethiopia, Liberia and Djibouti (3rd worst ranked team) managed to overcome their underdog status and go through and knocked out Lesotho, Swaziland and Sierra Leone (2nd highest ranked team). The 14 winners joined the other 26 teams of the continent and were drawn into 10 groups with 4 teams each in which everyone played everyone twice. The 10 group winners advanced to the knock-outs which were drawn based on the FIFA World Rankings. In these 5 2-legged H2H ties the 5 African contestants for Qatar were determined.

2026: Africa experienced the biggest format change. They scraped the pre-eliminary round and put all 54 teams into 9 groups with 6 teams each. Everyone faces everyone twice in their groups and the 9 group winners are qualified for the World Cup. The 4 best 2nds of the 9 groups will in one-legged semi finals and a final play out the 1 team that will get a second qualifying chance through the inter-confederation play-offs. As you might have noticed Eritrea withdrew by now which does affect the comparison of the 9 teams that will finish as 2nd in their group. According to Wikipedia "Neither CAF nor FIFA have made an official announcement on how Eritrea's withdrawal will affect the rankings of the group runners-up." UEFA's way to go for such cases usually was to drop the results against the team of the group that finished last to be able to compare the teams with the same amount of games played.

Europe (16 spots)

For 2022 the qualification started with 55 National Teams but Russia was banned at a late stage of it due to the invasion of Ukraine. All teams were distributed into 10 groups with 5 or 6 teams each. Everyone faced each other twice and the 10 group winners went to Qatar. 12 more teams played out the remaining 3 spots, they were drawn into 3 sets of 4 teams where the 4 teams played out 1 winner in semi finals and a final. These 12 teams were the 10 2nds of the groups as well as the 2 best UEFA Nations League 2020/21 group winners sorted from A to D. In this case Austria and Czechia from Nations League division B were the best group winners to not rank among the Top-2 in their respective groups.

2026: The format is very similar to 2022: All 54 (or 55) teams will be distributed into 12 groups with 4 or 5 teams each where everyone faces each other twice. The 12 Group-winners are qualified for the WC. 16 more teams play out the remaining 4 spots, in a 4 single match play-offs of semi-finals and a final. These 16 teams are the 12 group-2nds and the 4 best group winners from the UEFA Nations League 2024/25. Unlike all other continents Europe does NOT send any team to the infamous inter-confederation play-offs.

I****nter-confederation play-offs (2 spots)

2026: 2 teams from North America, 1 each from Oceania, Africa, Asia and South America and none from Europe participate in this play-off. Based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking the 2 best teams get a bye to the final where they face the winner of one of the semi-finals between the other 4 teams. The ties are one-legged as they are played in the host countries of the World Cup and therefore a neutral venue.

Just for fun I calculated what is the maximum of games a team may go through when it qualifies in each continent:

Oceania: 2+3+2+2 = 9, realistically it will be just 5 games though cause I doubt a team from Oceania will get through the inter-confederation play-off and no team of Oceania's bottom 4 will win the qualifier.

North America: 2+4+6+2 = 14, in reality it will be 10 games and if anyone manages it through the back door 11 or 12 games.

South America: 18+2 = 20, 6 teams will go through with 18 games played and possibly one more with 20 or probably rather 19.

Europe: 8+2 = 10, the teams who are drawn into a group with just 4 teams and come first, will have needed just 6 games to qualify, the ones in a 5-team group 8 games and the ones who get there through the single match play-offs 8 or 10 games.

Africa: 10+2+2 = 14, 8 countries will reach the WC with 10 games played, Probably Zambia or Morocco just 8 because they are in the Eritrea group and if a team makes it through the inter-confederation play-off it might need up to 14 games to qualify.

Now to the most interesting one, Asia: 2+6+10+2+2+2 = 24, Well, good luck for that. Realistically, it's 22 or 21 games (because no team of the pre-eliminary round is gonna get that far) depending on the FIFA Ranking but that's still a lot. The teams who qualify regularly will have played 16 or 18 games.

Score: France 14-0 Gibraltar

Goalscorers (chronologically): Ethan Santos (OG), Marcus Thuram, Warren Zaire Emery, Kylian Mbappé (PK), Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot, Kingsley Coman, Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Kylian Mbappé, Olivier Giroud, Olivier Giroud.

Venue: Allianz Riviera (Nice)

Referee: John Brooks (ENG)

LINE-UPS

France

Mike Maignan, Jonathan Clauss, Theo Hernández, Jean-Clair Todibo, Dayot Upamecano (William Saliba), Warren Zaire-Emery (Youssouf Fofana), Adrien Rabiot (Boubacar Kamara), Kingsley Coman (Ousmane Dembélé), Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Thuram (Olivier Giroud).

Subs: Alphonse Aréola, Brice Samba, Axel Disasi, Lucas Hernández, Jules Koundé, Khéphren Thuram, Randal Kolo Muani.

Manager: Didier Deschamps

Gibraltar

Dayle Coleing, Joseph Chipolina (Ethan Jolley), Roy Chipolina, Aymen Mouelhi, Ethan Santos, Jack Sergeant, Evan De Haro, Nicholas Pozo, Liam Walker (Jayce Olivero), Lee Casciaro, Tjay De Barr.

Subs: Bradley Banda, Christian Lopez, Mohamed Badr, Scott Ballantine, James Coombes, Ayoub El Hmidi, Kevagn Ronco, Anthony Hernandez, Dylan Peacock, Michael Ruiz.

Manager: Julio Ribas

MATCH EVENTS:

0' France won 6/6 games so far with a GD of 13:1 and are guaranteed 1st in the group.

Gibraltar lost 6/6 games so far with a GD of 0:21 and are guaranteed last in the group.

Griezmann starts so he continues his insane streak and plays the 83rd game for France (also including friendlies) in a row without missing any or being an unused sub in any since June 2017.

The game in Gibraltar between these 2 sides ended in a 0-3.

A Fun-Fact: Lee Casciaro is 24 years older than his team-mate Nicholas Pozo and even 25 years older than his opponent Warren Zaire-Emery.

3' 1-0 for France, Clauss delivers a low fast cross into the 6 yard box and Ethan Santos clears it into his own goal.

4' 2-0 for France and it's another own goal. A seemingly undangerous pass from Mbappé towards the box of Gibraltar gets dangerous cause Griezmann is the only one chasing after it. He runs into the box and shoots, the GK saves Thuram and Mouelhi chase the rebound and in the end Mouelhi seemingly got the touch which brought the ball over the line from very short range. At least Uefa credited it to the defender for now.

8' Thuram with a huge chance, he is 1 on 1 vs the GK but he bottles it as he doesn't shoot it but passes to Mbappé who has 3 defenders who covered him and therefore didn't even get near the ball.

9' next chance for France but Mbappé shoots it over the goal.

Btw I just checked on Sofascore and they credit the 2nd goal to Marcus Thuram, so it was probably not an OG.

16' 3-0 for France. Gibraltar get counter attacked by France. Coman passes it to WZE who scores from 5 meters but might have gotten injured in that orocess. Red card check by VAR even.

18' Red Card for Ethan Santos from Gibraltar. Not his best day I would confidently claim. Zaire Emery will be subbed off.

20' Youssouf Fofana comes on for Warren Zaire Emery. Even though my german commentator insists it's Boubacar Kamara from Aston Villa... Let's see when he will notice, probably only if the direction tells him on his ear.

As another commenter mentioned the record for highest win in WC qualifiers of Europe is 13-0 from Germany vs San Marino, Jens Lehmann scored in that game.

25' Coman receives a beautiful pass by Fofana but shoots it over the top corner.

26' Griezmann almost completes a beautiful team goal but his header misses the target: long cross by Theo Hernández from the left, Coman lays off the volley from the right into the middle and Griezmann directly takes the header.

28' The veteran Casciaro handled the ball in his own box, there's a VAR check and the referee decides penalty for France.

30' 4-0 for France. The captain Kylian Mbappé Lottin takes it and scores bottom left while the GK jumped to the right. He now has as many goals for Les Bleus as Antoine Griezmann (44). Only Thierry Henry (51) and Stupid Sexy Giroud have more (54). Lee Casciaro got a yellow card.

The highest win by France in the last 100 years: 10-0 vs Azerbaijan 1995.

34' 5-0 for France. Jonathan Clauss bangs it in from well over 20 meters after France played a corner short. Mbappé collects the simple assist for that beautiful goal by Clauss who also "assisted" the own goal in the 3rd minute.

36' Well, this is stressful for me. 6-0 for France. Hernandez crosses the ball from the corner of the box. Gibraltar can't clear the ball away properly and it is presented perfectly for Coman who shoots it in from 5 meters. The goal withstood the var check for offside in the build up.

37' 7-0 for France. "Kamara!" No it was Fofana but my commentator is genuinely that stupid to still think it's Boubacar Kamara with the shirt number 19. Similar to Clauss goal a low strong shot from outside the box, but this time it's a bit closer like about 20 meters. Mbappé gets the assist again.

39' Rabiot almost scores with a header.

And my commentator still didn't get it, you could see the name on his shirt in multiple angles now.

7 different goalscorers so far btw

43' Coman tries a long shot but misses the goal by approximately 15 meters.

45' Mbappé gives the GK props for saving a shot of him, huge chance but he was rightfully flagged offside anyway.

Half Time Gibraltar really stabilized themselves after that 7-0

46' The game restarts, there are no substitutions, UEFA has by now also declared the 2-0 to Marcus Thuram.

49' Massive news LMAO my commentator (german DAZN) did admit that Fofana came on and not Kamara and he also scored the 7-0 not Kamara. He blames the kit numbers for the confusion lol.

52' Thuram's header after a Coman cross goes wide, this was already his 2nd chance in the 2nd half.

53' After a beautiful combination through the middle Griezmann is 1 on 1 vs the GK, he tries to cheekily chip it over the GK who is already on the ground but the ball seems to fly in slow motion and he doesn't get higher than half a meter so the keeper while sitting on the ground manages to sweep the ball away like an annoying fly and France miss another big chance.

57' Big chance for Thuram and in the end it's a goal denying goal line clearance by Gibraltar's number 4.

60' Somewhat of a goal attempt by Gibraltar.

61' Julio Ribas brings on fresh legs: Joseph Chipolina off, Jayce Olivero on, Liam Walker off, Ethan Jolley on. Yet another Ethan apparently.

63' 8-0 for France. Adrien Rabiot shoots it in from 4 meters after a scramble in front of the goal after a corner kick. The 8th different goalscorer of today.

65' 9-0 for France. Coman is the first to get his name in the goals sheet twice. a one-two with Mbappé and a shot that is deflected by a defender gets him his 2nd goal of the day.

67' 3 substitutions by France: Adrien Rabiot off, Olivier Giroud on, Marcus Thuram off, Boubacar Kamara on (now for real), Kingsley Coman off, Ousmane Dembélé on. Deschamps subbed off 4 players and all of them scored at least 1 goal by the time they were taken off.

71' The game is interrupted for a Gibraltar player who got a ball in his face. From a pass... from his own team-mate. Meanwhile La Ola is making its round through the stadium.

73' We have the double digits. 10-0 for France!! Ousmane Dembélé with a goal, that is trademarked by him. He cuts in from the right fakes a left-shooted foot by which he cuts to his right foot and shoots it low perfectly in the far corner. The UEFA graphic has a hard time to handle this number haha and...

74' ...11-0 for France. Theo Hernández cuts it back from the goal line and Mbappé converts from 6 meters.

The commentator says this would be France's highest win ever but he also repeatedly said that they defeated Denmark with 17-1 or sth like that around 1917 so I am not sure what he means.

~~78'~~ ~~12-0 for France. (the Germany - San Marino record is in danger now). Mbappé lays it off well for Giroud who shoots from around 15 meters and the low shot perfectly bounces in from the right far post. Mbappé's 5th goal contribution of the day, Olivier Giroud's 55th goal for Les Bleus. But the goal is still checked by VAR Idk why.~~

80' Offside by Giroud in the build up, no goal, no 12-0, right decision in my opinion, the Gibraltar defender had a more or less accident touch so it doesn't lift the offside.

81' Dayot Upamecano off, William Saliba on and for Gibraltar: Tjay de Barr off, James Coombes on

82' 12-0 for France. Kylian Mbappé with an absolute screamer and now his 5th goal contribution of the day for real. He spontaneously shoots it from probably over 40 meters and the GK just can't get back enough to save the long shot. Shades of Federico Dimarco and this one Azerbaijanian guy vs Denmark recently.

Lol worldfootball.com credits Lucas Hernández with the assist for the 11th goal! Lucas Hernández is on the bench and was never subbed on today.

France are passing it around the back, "back" means 30 meters from Gibraltar's goal in this scenario.

89' 13-0 for France, the Germany - San Marino record is tied now. A ball over the backline from Fofana for the in-running Griezmann, he lays it off 1st touch with his chest for Giroud who cunts it in for his 55th goal for Les Bleus now for real. It's Griezmann's first direct goal contribution of the day.

90+1' 14-0 for France, the Germany - San Marino record is broken. And France have added another banger to the spectacle. Theo Hernández with a thundercunt which the GK saves by parrying it high into the air. Giroud takes the ball at a height of about 2 meters with his foot(!) with an overhead kick and scores by that from very close range.

Game Over

Venue: Allianz Riviera (Nice)

Referee: John Brooks (ENG)

LINE-UPS

France

Mike Maignan, Jonathan Clauss, Theo Hernández, Jean-Clair Todibo, Dayot Upamecano, Warren Zaire-Emery, Adrien Rabiot, Kingsley Coman, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Thuram.

Subs: Alphonse Aréola Brice Samba Axel Disasi Lucas Hernández Boubacar Kamara Jules Koundé William Saliba Youssouf Fofana Khéphren Thuram Ousmane Dembélé Olivier Giroud Randal Kolo Muani.

Manager: Didier Deschamps

Gibraltar

Dayle Coleing, Joseph Chipolina, Roy Chipolina, Aymen Mouelhi, Ethan Santos, Jack Sergeant, Evan De Haro, Nicholas Pozo, Liam Walker, Lee Casciaro, Tjay De Barr.

Subs: Bradley Banda Christian Lopez Ethan Jolley Jayce Olivero Mohamed Badr Scott Ballantine James Coombes Ayoub El Hmidi Kevagn Ronco Anthony Hernandez Dylan Peacock Michael Ruiz.

Manager: Julio Ribas

MATCH EVENTS:

0' France won 6/6 games so far with a GD of 13:1 and are guaranteed 1st in the group.

Gibraltar lost 6/6 games so far with a GD of 0:21 and are guaranteed last in the group.

Griezmann starts so he continues his insane streak and plays the 83rd game for France (also including friendlies) in a row without missing any or being an unused sub in any since June 2017.

The game in Gibraltar between these 2 sides ended in a 0-3.

This includes all cup seasons from:

FA Cup since 2010/11

EFL Cup since 2011/12

Copa del Rey and DFB Pokal since 2005/06

Coupe de France since 1947/48

Coppa Italia since 2003/04

until 3rd of November 2023.

I could only go back as far as the Wikipedia Pages of the cup campaigns state the league tiers each club played in that very season. For some unknown but pleasant reason the Coupe de France is tracked very throughly, so we could go back extremely far there. We won't see any Italian upsets in the further post because the Coppa Italia is constructed very elitist which barely allows any matchup of even 3rd division clubs with Serie A teams, let alone 4th or 5th division teams.

In the seasons considered as noted above there have been 17 occasions in which a team from the 1st tier was knocked out by a team from the 5th tier:

Season, Round	Team won	Result	Team lost
49/50, 1	SC La Bastidienne Bordeaux	3-2	RC Lens
87/88, 1	US Endoume Catalans Marseille	2-1 after extra time	AS Cannes
95/96, 1	CS Blénod	1-0	SC Bastia
98/99, 1	Jura-Sud Foot	8-7 after pens	FC Toulouse
98/99, 2	US Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes	1-0	FC Sochaux
02/03, 1	SC Schiltigheim	3-1	ESTAC Troyes
05/06, 2	SR Colmar	1-0 after extra time	AS Monaco
07/08, 2	US Jeanne d’Arc Carquefou	2-1 after extra time	AS Nancy
07/08, 3	US Jeanne d’Arc Carquefou	1-0	Olympique de Marseille
10/11, 1	ES Wasquehal⁠	2-1	AJ Auxerre
10/11, 1	SO Chambéry	3-2 after pens	AS Monaco
10/11, 2	SO Chambéry	4-3 after pens	Stade Brestois
10/11, 3	SO Chambéry	2-1	FC Sochaux
12/13, 2	Luton Town	1-0	Norwich City
13/14, 2	FB Île-Rousse	4-3 after pens	Bordeaux
16/17, 3	Lincoln City	1-0	Burnley
21/22, 1	ESA Linas-Montlhéry	2-0	SCO Angers

​

And 4 more occasions in which a team from the 6th division pulled off the unlikely:

Season, Round	Team won	Result	Team lost
59/60, 2	AS Gardanne	3-2	FC Toulouse
81/82, 1	US Sanary	7-6 after pens	Montpellier
18/19, 1	ES Viry-Châtillon	1-0	SCO Angers
22/23, 1	FCO Strasbourg Koenigshoffen 06	4-3 after pens	Clermont Foot

The "Round" in the 1st column starts the count whenever the 1st division teams entered the competitions.

I actually also wrote down all times when a 4th division did it but I am not gonna spam you with that big list, but I would like to note a few interesting upsets. All teams from 4th division which knocked out at least two 1st division teams within one season:

Season, Round	Team won	Result	Team lost
97/98, 2	FC Bourg-Péronnas	3-2	Montpellier
97/98, 2	FC Bourg-Péronnas	2.0	FC Metz
99/00, 4	Calais RUFC	2-1	RC Strasbourg
99/00, 5	Calais RUFC	3-1 after extra time	Bordeaux
01/02, 1	FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin	2-0	Lille OSC
01/02, 2	FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin	2-1 after extra time	FC Metz
03/04, 1	Aviron Bayonne	5-3 after pens	EA Guingamp
03/04, 2	Aviron Bayonne	1-0 after extra time	Bordeaux
05/06, 1	AS Lyon-Duchère	2-1	FC Toulouse
05/06, 2	AS Lyon-Duchère	5-4 after pens	RC Strasbourg
06/07, 3	FC Montceau	5-4 after pens	Bordeaux
06/07, 4	FC Montceau	1-0	RC Lens
09/10, 1	Eintracht Trier	3-1	Hannover 96
09/10, 2	Eintracht Trier	4-2	Arminia Bielefeld
09/10, 3	US Quevilly	1-0	Stade Rennais
09/10, 4	US Quevilly	3-1	US Boulogne
12/13, 3	Bradford City	4-2 after pens	Wigan Athletic
12/13, 4	Bradford City	3-2 after pens	Arsenal
12/13, 5	Bradford City	4-3 on aggregate	Aston Villa
13/14, 1	AS Cannes	1-0 after extra time	AS Saint-Étienne
13/14, 3	AS Cannes	4-3 after pens	Montpellier
19/20, 2	1. FC Saarbrücken	3-2	1. FC Köln
19/20, 4	1. FC Saarbrücken	7-6 after pens	Fortuna Düsseldorf
19/20, 1	Colchester United	5-4 after pens	Crystal Palace
19/20, 2	Colchester United	4-3 after pens	Tottenham
20/21, 1	Rot-Weiss Essen	1-0	Arminia Bielefeld
20/21, 3	Rot-Weiss Essen	2-1 after extra time	Bayer Leverkusen

Add to that the 5th division teams US Jeanne d’Arc Carquefou and SO Chambéry as seen in the first table. Bradford was the only team to knock out as many as 3 1st division teams. A special shout-out to Crawley Town who knocked out a 1st division team in the 1st cup round of 3 of the last 4 seasons (Norwich, Leeds, Fulham).

This includes all cup seasons from:

FA Cup since 2010/11

EFL Cup since 2011/12

Copa del Rey and DFB Pokal since 2005/06

Coupe de France since 1947/48

Coppa Italia since 2003/04

until 3rd of November 2023.

I could only go back as far as the Wikipedia Pages of the cup campaigns state the league tiers each club played in that very season. For some unknown but pleasant reason the Coupe de France is tracked very throughly, so we could go back extremely far there. We won't see any Italian upsets in the further post because the Coppa Italia is constructed very elitist which barely allows any matchup of even 3rd division clubs with Serie A teams, let alone 4th or 5th division teams.

In the seasons considered as noted above there have been 17 occasions in which a team from the 1st tier was knocked out by a team from the 5th tier:

|Season | Round|Team won|Result|Team lost| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |49/50 | 1|SC La Bastidienne Bordeaux|3-2|RC Lens| |87/88 | 1|US Endoume Catalans Marseille|2-1 after extra time|AS Cannes| |95/96 | 1|CS Blénod|1-0|SC Bastia| |98/99 | 1|Jura-Sud Foot|8-7 afer pens|FC Toulouse| |98/99 | 2|US Saint-Georges-les-Ancizes|1-0|FC Sochaux| |02/03 | 1|SC Schiltigheim|3-1|ESTAC Troyes| |05/06 | 2|SR Colmar|1-0 after extra time|AS Monaco| |07/08 | 2|US Jeanne d’Arc Carquefou|2-1 after extra time|AS Nancy| |07/08 | 3|US Jeanne d’Arc Carquefou|1-0|Olympique de Marseille| |10/11 | 1|ES Wasquehal⁠|2-1|AJ Auxerre| |10/11 | 1|SO Chambéry|3-2 afer pens|AS Monaco| |10/11 | 2|SO Chambéry|4-3 afer pens|Stade Brestois| |10/11 | 3|SO Chambéry|2-1|FC Sochaux| |12/13 | 2|Luton Town|1-0|Norwich City| |13/14 | 2|FB Île-Rousse|4-3 afer pens|Bordeaux| |16/17 | 3|Lincoln City|1-0|Burnley| |21/22 | 1|ESA Linas-Montlhéry|2-0|SCO Angers|

And 4 more occasions in which a team from the 6th division pulled off the unlikely:

|Season | Round|Team won|Result|Team lost| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |59/60 | 2|AS Gardanne|3-2|FC Toulouse| |81/82 | 1|US Sanary|7-6 after pens|Montpellier| |18/19 | 1|ES Viry-Châtillon|1-0|SCO Angers| |22/23 | 1|FCO Strasbourg Koenigshoffen 06|4-3 after pens|Clermont Foot|

The "Round" in the 1st column starts the count whenever the 1st division teams entered the competitions.

I actually also wrote down all times when a 4th division did it but I am not gonna spam you with that big list, but I would like to note a few interesting upsets.

All teams from 4th division which knocked out at least two 1st division teams within one season:

|Season | Round|Team won|Result|Team lost| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |97/98 | 2|FC Bourg-Péronnas|3-2|Montpellier| |97/98 | 3|FC Bourg-Péronnas|2-0|FC Metz| |99/00 | 4|Calais RUFC|2-1|RC Strasbourg| |99/00 | 5|Calais RUFC|3-1 after extra time|Bordeaux| |01/02 | 1|FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin|2-0|Lille OSC| |01/02 | 2|FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin|2-1 after extra time|FC Metz| |03/04 | 1|Aviron Bayonne|5-3 after pens|EA Guingamp| |03/04 | 2|Aviron Bayonne|1-0 after extra time|Bordeaux| |05/06 | 1|AS Lyon-Duchère|2-1|FC Toulouse| |05/06 | 2|AS Lyon-Duchère|5-4 after pens|RC Strasbourg| |06/07 | 3|FC Montceau|5-4 after pens|Bordeaux| |06/07 | 4|FC Montceau|1-0|RC Lens| |09/10 | 1|Eintracht Trier|3-1|Hannover 96| |09/10 | 2|Eintracht Trier|4-2|Arminia Bielefeld| |09/10 | 3|US Quevilly|1-0|Stade Rennais| |09/10 | 4|US Quevilly|3-1|US Boulogne| |12/13 | 3|Bradford City|4-2 after pens|Wigan Athletic| |12/13 | 4|Bradford City|3-2 after pens|Arsenal| |12/13 | 5|Bradford City|4-3 on aggregate|Aston Villa| |13/14 | 1|AS Cannes|1-0 after extra time|AS Saint-Étienne| |13/14 | 3|AS Cannes|4-3 after pens|Montpellier| |19/20 | 2|1. FC Saarbrücken|3-2|1. FC Köln| |19/20 | 4|1. FC Saarbrücken|7-6 after pens|Fortuna Düsseldorf| |19/20 | 1|Colchester United|5-4 after pens|Crystal Palace| |19/20 | 2|Colchester United|4-3 after pens|Tottenham| |20/21 | 1|Rot-Weiss Essen|1-0|Arminia Bielefeld| |20/21 | 3|Rot-Weiss Essen|2-1 after extra time|Bayer Leverkusen|

Add to that the 5th division teams US Jeanne d’Arc Carquefou and SO Chambéry as seen in the first table. Bradford was the only team to knock out as many as 3 1st division teams. A special shout-out to Crawley Town who knocked out a 1st division team in the 1st cup round of 3 of the last 4 seasons (Norwich, Leeds, Fulham).

First of all, this doesn't include goalkeepers.

It includes Premier League, Ligue 1, Eredivisie, Liga Portugal, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga and the domestic cup, super cup (and league cup and relegation Play-offs if existent) of these countries.

Furthermore it includes UEFA CL, EL, ECL, also including the qualification rounds for these competitions + UEFA Super Cup + FIFA Club World Cup

And it includes all National Team games from end of May 2018 (friendlies in preparation of the World Cup) until July 2023 (Gold Cup) no matter the competition, so also friendlies. Source: transfermarkt.de

Minutes Played	Player
26108	Bruno Fernandes
24792	Rúben Dias
24376	Dusan Tadic
23913	Joshua Kimmich
23869	Andrew Robertson
23819	Mohamed Salah
23815	Harry Kane
23692	Robert Lewandowski
23265	Frenkie de Jong
23243	Casemiro
23078	Antoine Griezmann
23045	Lionel Messi
22584	Rodri
22422	Bernardo Silva
22353	Declan Rice
22186	Youri Tielemans
22165	Sergio Busquets
22013	Kylian Mbappé Lottin
21982	Pierre-Emile Højbjerg
21970	Sadio Mané
21925	Marquinhos
21914	Heung-min Son
21890	Giovanni Di Lorenzo
21761	Harry Maguire
21663	Milan Skriniar
21572	Marcelo Brozovic
21565	Virgil Van Dijk
21557	Nicolò Barella
21512	Luka Modric
21497	David Alaba
21478	Francesco Acerbi
21390	Granit Xhaka
21161	Jorginho
21159	Matthijs de Ligt
21132	Antonio Rüdiger
21109	Nicolás Otamendi
21056	Raheem Sterling
21031	Daniel Parejo

27,000 minutes would equal to 60 complete matches per season on average.

This took some time as I looked up and noted down the minutes of a lot more players than just these 38, so if you miss a player let me know and I may be able to tell you how many minutes he played in the considered competitions in the last 5 seasons.