Goals. We want goals. And we're getting them. In the group stage of this World Cup the average goals per game is 2.83. That's huge. You have to go back to 1958 to find more goals per game in the group stage.

Last-minute winners. There's little better than a game that goes to the death. Manchester United in the Nou Camp in 1999 - who can forget that? In the group stage in Brazil, seven matches have been decided in the last five minutes - more than in most other World Cups and certainly better than the last couple.

Goals scored by both sides. High-scoring games may be entertaining but not if one side is just getting tonked. "The average over the past 10 World Cups of games where both teams have scored is 47%, with a low of 38% in 2006 and 1974, and a high of 56% in 1982," says Paul Wainwright, an Aussie who's crunched some of the numbers for Australian website The Roar. This World Cup matches 1982 on 56%.

Close Games. "We're seeing more exciting games with both teams in it right until the end," says Wainwright. Forty-four per cent of the games have ended with a one-goal margin. This equals the previous high of 44% in 1990. The low was 17% in 1974.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28054653