For comparison, the French (566*) spent 1 hour and 24 minutes less on the field. (* – including added time by the referee).
The Spaniards played only slightly longer (573), while the English (606) had to play one overtime in the quarterfinals against the Norwegians.
It is natural that Argentina leads in distance covered (706.4 km), slightly ahead of England (703.5) and more than Spain (684.5) and France (658.1).
However, if we calculate intensity (kilometers per minute), the leaders change – the Spaniards rise to the top (1.19 km/min), ahead of the French and English (both 1.16), while the Argentines lag significantly (1.08).
The Argentine number is dragged down by Lionel Messi, who is playing an impressive tournament. It has been calculated that the 39-year-old forward spends 64% of his time in this tournament walking on the field.
Another 25% of the time he is simply standing, and during the remaining 11% he scored 8 goals and made 2 assists. “The way L. Messi uses energy in matches is absolutely brilliant,” writes The Telegraph.
The statistics giant OPTA added an impressive fact – in this World Cup, it only happened twice that a forward covered more than 5 km at walking speed in a match, and both times it was L. Messi.
The most kilometers on the field in this championship have already been covered by Rodri (71.17 km), ahead of the English attacking star Harry Kane (67.85) and midfielder Elliot Anderson (65.81).
By minutes played, it is usual that goalkeepers Emiliano Martinez (650) and Jordan Pickford (606) lead, and among outfield players the leaders in this statistic are Alexis Mac Allister (588), H. Kane (581), and the Spanish defensive line Marc Cucurella, Pau Cubarsi, and Unai Simon (each 573). Interestingly, L. Messi is very close with 571 minutes.
Speaking of fatigue, distance traveled can be an important aspect. BBC calculated that by this indicator the English (23.1 thousand km) surpass the French (3.1 thousand km) by more than 7 times.
The Spaniards also had to travel a lot by plane (19.9 thousand km), less so the Argentines (9.2 thousand km).
The first semifinal between France and Spain will take place on Tuesday at 22:00 (Lithuanian time), the second between England and Argentina on Wednesday at 22:00.