The 2014 World Cup in stats

After the completion of the second round there are 15 players from the 8 matches played who had 100 or more touches of the ball.

Toni Kroos (Germany-Algeria) 135
Ángel Di María (Argentina-Switzerland) 125
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany-Algeria) 121
Philipp Lahm (Germany-Algeria) 121
Jerome Boateng (Germany-Algeria) 116
Geoff Cameron (USA-Belgium) 113
Javier Mascherano (Argentina-Switzerland) 112
Per Mertesacker (Germany-Algeria) 111
José Holebas (Greece-Costa Rica) 108
Fernando Gago (Argentina-Switzerland) 105
Michael Bradley (USA-Belgium) 105
Giorgos Karagounis (Greece-Costa Rica) 104
Dani Alves (Brazil-Chile) 100
Marcos Rojo (Argentina-Switzerland) 100
DaMarcus Beasley (USA-Belgium) 100

Tim Howard's 15 saves for USA against Belgium beat a World Cup record that had stood since 1978, when Peru goalkeeper Ramon Quiroga made 13 saves in a match against Netherlands.

As we go into the quarter finals, here are 10 players with a best stat of the tournament so far.

Leading scorer: James Rodríguez (Colombia) 5

Most assists: Juan Guillermo Cuadrado (Colombia) 4

Most successful dribbes: Lionel Messi (Argentina) 24

Most passes completed: Toni Kroos (Germany) 360

Most shots on target: Karim Benzema (France) 13

Blocked the most shots: Geoff Cameron (USA) 8

Made the most interceptions: Luiz Gustavo (Brazil) 19

Most distance covered: Michael Bradley (USA) 54,709m

Most fouled player: Alexis Sánchez (Chile) 24

Most crosses: Ángel Di María (Argentina) 33

Brazil committed 31 fouls in their quarter final against Colombia - this is the most fouls by Brazil in a World Cup match since records began in 1966.

The Brazil-Columbia quarter final saw a total of 54 fouls committed, the most of any match in this tournament (31 fouls by Brazil and 23 by Columbia). There were more fouls committed in the match than there were good challenges, with only 44 out of 98 challenges being fair.

12 players in the match made 4 or more challenges. Here they are in order of how successful they were.

Mario Yepes (Columbia) 6/7 fair - 86% successful
Neymar (Brazil) 3/4 fair - 75% successful
Paulinho (Brazil) 6/9 fair - 67% successful
Oscar (Brazil) 4/6 fair - 67% successful
Fredy Guarín (Columbia) 3/5 fair - 60% successful
Fernandinho (Brazil) 4/8 fair - 50% successful
Cristian Zapata (Columbia) 3/6 fair - 50% successful
Maicon (Brazil) 2/4 fair - 50% successful
Marcelo (Brazil) 4/9 fair - 44% successful
Juan Guillermo Cuadrado (Columbia) 1/4 fair - 25% successful
Hulk (Brazil) 1/5 fair - 20% successful
Fred (Brazil) 0/4 fair - 0% successful

After the completion of the quarter finals here are the tournament's top 25 performances for distance covered (in metres).

Michael Bradley (USA-Belgium) 16,689
Marouane Fellaini (Belgium-USA) 16,268
Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium-USA) 15,989
Geoff Cameron (USA-Belgium) 15,496
Marcel Diaz (Chile-Brazil) 15,524
Charles Aránguiz (Chile-Brazil) 15,015
Jermaine Jones (USA-Belgium) 14,966
Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland-Argentina) 14,583
Luiz Gustavo (Brazil-Chile) 14,513
Stephan Lichtsteiner (Switzerland-Argentina) 14,483
Celso Borges (Costa Rica-Greece) 14,473
Gökhan Inler (Switzerland-Argentina) 14,464
Clint Dempsey (USA-Belgium) 14,384
Eugenio Mena (Chile-Brazil) 14,337
Axel Witsel (Belgium-USA) 14,201
Celso Borges (Costa Rica-Netherlands) 14,102
Valon Behrami (Switzerland-Argentina) 14,079
Bryan Ruiz (Costa Rica-Greece) 14,073
Alejandro Bedoya (USA-Belgium) 14,071
Omar Gonzalez (USA-Belgium) 13,992
Bryan Ruiz (Costa Rica-Netherlands) 13,960
Vincent Kompany (Belgium-USA) 13,796
Dani Alves (Brazil-Chile) 13,780
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands-Costa Rica) 13,735
Johnny Acosta (Costa Rica-Netherlands) 13,691

Number of fouls committed by the 4 teams left in the tournament:

Brazil 96
Netherlands 91
Germany 57
Argentina 51

In the World Cup quarter finals the 7 players with the most touches of the ball all came from the same team - Netherlands.

Stefan de Vrij 119
Wesley Sneijder 108
Dirk Kuyt 104
Daley Blind 104
Ron Vlaar 101
Bruno Martins 97
Arjen Robben 97

The semi final between Brazil and Germany is only the 2nd time that these two have met in the World Cup (the other being the 2002 final).

Some stats from the Brazil-Germany semi-final.

* Germany were the harder running team, their players covering an average of 10.9 km in the match compared to 9.9 km by the Brazilian players.

* Germany were the more clinical team, scoring 7 goals from only 14 goal attempts compared to 1 goal scored from 18 attempts by Brazil.

* Germany were more defensively minded, their players spending an average of 58% of the match in their own half compared to 51% by Brazil.

* Germany gave the ball away less, surrendering it 8 times in the match compared to Brazil losing possession 17 times due to unforced errors.

* Germany passed the ball shorter, with 9.8% of their distribution being long balls, compared to Brazil who went long with 14% of their passes.