World Cup: New records created in opening match

FIFA World Cup 2018 kicked off with the grand victory of Russia over Saudi Arabia at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. The match was unique in the history of World Cup as it saw a few records being broken and new ones being created. Let's have a look at them.

1. The opening match usually played by defending champion or hosting country, and either of the teams was a big favourite of the tournament or top ranking team. But like South Africa 2010, this time also the tournament started with a match between relatively lower ranked teams (Russia 70 and KSA 67), though one of them was hosting nation.

2. First time after 1954, a team won by a margin of 5-0 in the opening match. In 1954, Brazil had thrashed Mexico with the same margin.

3. Two players - Lury Gazinsky and Denis Chryshev -- scored their first international goals in the opening match. This is for the first time in World Cup history.

4. The referee used two yellow cards -- Aleksandr Glovin at 88' and Taiseer Aljassam at 90'+3'. This is for the first time in the opening match.

5. As Denis Chryshev and Artem Dzyuba successfully diverted the ball into net, it entered the record book as it was for first time two substituting players scored goals in the opening match of World Cup.

6. This is Saudi's second-biggest loss in the World Cup after a humiliating 0-8 defeat against Germany in 2002.

The subsequent matches will see more record-breaking performance from teams and players.