Stat, Viz, Quiz 130: Just How Surprising Was Macclesfield’s FA Cup Win Over Crystal Palace?

A certain amount of humble pie may have been eaten on Saturday, though, when Macclesfield FC of the National League North took on the reigning holders Crystal Palace, and knocked them out. In this week’s SVQ, we’ll put some more context around what was arguably the biggest shock in FA Cup history.

Former Palace player Michael Olise has been terrorising defences in the Bundesliga since moving to Bayern Munich in 2024, and he notched up a very impressive record to go with a landmark appearance in Germany this weekend. We’ll show you a viz that illustrates the impact he’s had.

We have an FA Cup quiz for you, and our Ask Opta question is all about the World Cup, because frankly, we can’t wait until the summer. Can you blame us in this weather?

You couldn’t write it.

Well, you probably could. Someone once wrote Lord of the Rings after all, so coming up with a scenario where a former motorway supervisor captains a non-league team to victory over a Premier League opponent perhaps isn’t too far-fetched.

However, few, if anyone, expected lowly Macclesfield of the sixth tier to give reigning holders Crystal Palace any problems on Saturday, let alone beat them.

With an almost FA-Cup-clichéd bandage on his head as he nodded the hosts in front, captain Paul Dawson embodied everything about his team’s performance.

Isaac Buckley-Ricketts made it two before Yéremy Pino scored what only turned out to be a late consolation for the Eagles.

The magic of the cup was alive and well on the final whistle. Palace fans may have disagreed, but then they got their fair share of it last season when they won the competition for the first time in their history.

It made Macclesfield the first non-league team to eliminate the FA Cup holders since Palace themselves knocked out Wolves in the first round in 1908-09.

The Silkmen also became the first non-league team to score twice in an FA Cup match against a Premier League team since Kettering Town vs Fulham in 2009, and the first against the holders since Runcorn vs Preston in 1939.

As of Friday, before their incredible victory over Palace, Macclesfield sat in 6,879th in Opta’s Global Power Rankings, a ranking system for over 13,000 teams across world football. That was six places below Real Betis III of Spain’s Autonómicas (regional leagues), and one place above Mons Calpe, who went into the weekend in fourth place in the Gibraltar Premier League.

Palace were in 19th place prior to the game, ahead of Tottenham, Milan, Benfica and Juventus. The difference between the two teams going into the game was therefore 6,860 places.

For context, that would be like the number one team in the Power Rankings, Arsenal, losing to Al-Rayyan of the Qatar Stars League (6,861st), or like European champions Paris Saint-Germain (4th) losing to WaleWale Catholic Stars FC of the Ghanaian league (6,864th).

Fans of fifth-tier Polish side Izolator Boguchwała (6,870th) would be able to have some optimism against Real Madrid (10th) should they ever be paired in any competition, while the same applies to Argentinian fourth-tier side Atlético Baradero (6,865th) if they ever face Barcelona (5th).

That seems unlikely, but then unlikely things can still happen. Just ask Macclesfield.

One person formerly associated with Crystal Palace who did have a good weekend was Michael Olise.

The former Eagle played in his 50th Bundesliga game for Bayern Munich, and he marked the occasion in style. Olise scored twice and provided an assist in an 8-1 rout for the Rekordmeister against Wolfsburg, and he would probably have had another assist had opposition defender Moritz Jenz not got to his cross ahead of Luis Díaz to accidentally divert into his own net to make it 4-1.

The France international has been an undoubted success at the Allianz Arena since joining from Palace in the summer of 2024, scoring 21 Bundesliga goals, but most notably, recording 24 assists.

That is the most assists any player has managed in the Bundesliga in their first 50 appearances in the competition on record (since 2004-05), putting him ahead of Jadon Sancho for Borussia Dortmund (22), Emil Forsberg for RB Leipzig (21) and Diego for Werder Bremen (19).

Olise’s 24 assists are at least twice as many as any other player in the Bundesliga in that time, and is the most of anyone in Europe’s top five leagues ahead of Mohamed Salah (21) and Lamine Yamal (20).

Some may suggest that having Kane up front makes racking up assists easy, but Olise has been the most creative figure in the Bundesliga since the start of last season. His 133 chances created are the most in the German top flight in that time, as are his 112 chances created from open play.

It therefore isn’t too surprising that his 21.5 expected assists are comfortably the most of any Bundesliga player, ahead of teammate Joshua Kimmich’s 15.1.

How many more assists will Olise manage this season? That remains to be seen, but his form will no doubt be pleasing Bayern boss Vincent Kompany, as well as France head coach Didier Deschamps ahead of this summer’s World Cup.

So, there you go Palace fans. Your former player is doing really well over in Germany… You’re still thinking about the bad news, aren’t you?

This week’s quiz is all about the FA Cup. Can you shock the world like Macclesfield and get all five right? Answers at the bottom.

1. Wrexham beat Nottingham Forest on penalties, knocking a Premier League side out of the FA Cup for the first time since the 1999-2000 season when they beat who 2-1 in the third round?

2. Aged 38 years and 204 days, Asmir Begovic became the oldest player to appear in the FA Cup for Leicester City since which other goalkeeper featured for them in February 2015 against Aston Villa (42y 132d)?

3. Arsenal beat Portsmouth 4-1 in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday. Prior to that, in which season did the Gunners last reach the fourth round of the competition?

4. For the first time in their history, Sheffield United conceded 4+ goals against lower-league opposition in the FA Cup on home soil. Who did they lose 4-3 to at Bramall Lane on Sunday?

5. Brajan Gruda’s opener on Sunday made him the first Brighton and Hove Albion player to score in the FA Cup against Manchester United since who did so when the two teams met in the 1983 final?

Our question this week comes from Timo Schöning, who asks: “I recently came across a statistic suggesting that every World Cup final since 1982 has featured at least one player from Bayern Munich. Could you provide information on which teams from the European big five leagues have had the most World Cup final participants overall?”

Do you have a stat-based question you’d like Opta to answer in a future edition of SVQ? Email us at [email protected] or message us on X @OptaAnalyst with #AskOpta and we’ll pick the best one.

Answer:

We certainly can, Timo. And it is Bayern Munich. For clarity, this is looking only at the club a player played for at the time of their World Cup final appearance, not subsequent or previous clubs.

The German giants have had 35 players feature in a World Cup final in total, four more than the next most, which is Juventus (31).

Inter aren’t far behind, with 28 appearances, but there’s a bit of a drop after that to Barcelona and Milan, who have each had 17 feature in a World Cup final.

Real Madrid players have 15 collective appearances, ahead of Roma’s 14. After that come German sides 1. FC Köln (12), Hamburger SV (9), 1. FC Kaiserslautern (8) and VfB Stuttgart (8).

Timo is also correct that every World Cup final since 1982 has featured at least one Bayern Munich player. The 2022 final included three, with Dayot Upamecano starting for France, Kingsley Coman coming off the bench, and Benjamin Pavard being an unused substitute. Lucas Hernández was also a part of the French squad but missed the final through injury.

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1. Wrexham beat Nottingham Forest on penalties, knocking a Premier League side out of the FA Cup for the first time since the 1999-2000 season when they beat who 2-1 in the third round?

Middlesbrough

2. Aged 38 years and 204 days, Asmir Begovic became the oldest player to appear in the FA Cup for Leicester City since which other goalkeeper featured for them in February 2015 against Aston Villa (42y 132d)?

Mark Schwarzer

3. Arsenal beat Portsmouth 4-1 in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday. Prior to that, in which season did the Gunners last reach the fourth round of the competition?

2022-23

4. For the first time in their history, Sheffield United conceded 4+ goals against lower-league opposition in the FA Cup on home soil. Who did they lose 4-3 to at Bramall Lane on Sunday?

Mansfield Town

5. Brajan Gruda’s opener on Sunday made him the first Brighton and Hove Albion player to score in the FA Cup against Manchester United since who did so when the two teams met in the 1983 final?

Gary Stevens

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Until next time,
Opta Analyst