The Knowledge | A deep dive into low possession smash-and-grab thrashings in football

Plus: teams scoring just once and qualifying at World Cups, penalty shootout shutouts and Clough v facial hair

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“In their opening game of the League Two season, Sutton beat Notts County 5-1 despite having only 30% possession,” tweets Fishing4Boots. “That works out at 6% of the possession for each goal scored. Has any team ever recorded a lower percentage in a professional match (naturally excluding the likes of that 149-0 protest)?”

As this question is really about smash-and-grab thrashings, we’ve imposed an entirely arbitrary restriction: teams must have had less than 40% possession to qualify. That rules out spectacular mismatches, such as England 20-0 Latvia during qualification for this year’s Women’s World Cup. (Since you asked, England had 86% possession, a possession-per-goal figure of 4.3. And no, we couldn’t find possession stats for Australia 31-0 American Samoa.)

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