The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ is getting closer – 71 days to go!

In less than three months' time – on 14 June, to be precise – the 21st FIFA World Cup™ kicks off at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, as the hosts take on Saudi Arabia.

That leaves us plenty of time to enjoy a countdown. Between now and the start of the World Cup, we will take a closer look at a different statistic from the history of the tournament each day.

71 - the number of goals that have been scored in the 20 FIFA World Cup Finals played to date. The first of them was scored by Uruguay’s Pablo Dorado at the inaugural Final in 1930, which saw La Celeste beat Argentina 4-2, and the most recent of them by Germany’s Mario Gotze, also against La Albiceleste, in Germany’s 1-0 victory at Brazil 2014. England’s Geoff Hurst holds the record for the most goals scored by a player in a Final, with his hat-trick helping his side to a 4-2 defeat of West Germany in 1966.

Three other players have also scored three goals in Finals, but needed two of them to reach that figure: fellow Brazilians Vava (in 1958 and 1962) and Pele (1958 and 1970) and France’s Zinedine Zidane (1998 and 2006). Italy’s Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola both scored twice in their country’s 4-2 win over Hungary in 1938, while Germany’s Helmut Rahn (in 1954), Argentina’s Mario Kempes (in 1978) and Brazil’s Ronaldo (in 2002) are the three other players who, across the 88-year history of the biggest tournament in world football, have also scored braces in a Final.