Russia’s remarkable start to the World Cup has seen them secure their place in the last-16 against all expectations, with Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Egypt giving them two wins from two and a likely encounter on the horizon with either Spain or Portugal.

The 5-0 and 3-1 wins over Saudi Arabia and Egypt respectively have thrown up a number of interestingly stats, such as highest goalscorers of the tournament, an unlikely 100 per cent record and joint-top scorer in Denis Cheryshev.

Then there’s also the incredible stat that they are collectively running further per game than any other nation at the World Cup…by a country mile.

Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Show all 24 1 /24 Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Russia Valery Sharifulin/TASS Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Igor Akinfeev - 5 Not much to do as most shots went wide Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Mario Fernandes - 6 Defended okay, great going forward Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Ilya Kutepov - 5 Worked hard in defence to keep the strikers at bay Valery Sharifulin/TASS Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Sergey Ignashevich - 6 Closed down well and kept Salah quiet Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Yury Zhirkov - 6 Attacked well down the left wing and stayed strong in defence Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Yuri Gazinskiy - 6 Looked good going forward but no real threat AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Roman Zobnin - 7 Was good in mid-field and kept attacking throughout AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Alexander Samedov - 7 Exploited the weaknesses in Egypt’s defence firing crosses in for fun Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Aleksandr Golovin - 6 Played okay but could have done with hitting a few more shots Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Denis Cheryshev - 8 Probed the left wing well and found the gaps in the box to score Valery Sharifulin/TASS Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Artem Dzyuba - 7 Was targeted by the defence but found the target anyway AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Egypt Alexander Demianchuk/TASS Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Mohamed Elshenawy - 6 Solid in goal, came out and met a few of Russia’s crosses FIFA via Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Ahmed Fathy - 5 Struggled at the back, especially with Salah not tracking back Peter Kovalev/TASS Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Ali Gabr - 6 Marked the big man well, had his plans and stuck to them Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Ahmed Hegazi - 6 Worked well with Gabr to keep Dzyuba at bay AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Mohamed Abdel-Shafy - 5 Not a lot to do going forward but was okay at the back Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Mohamed Elneny - 5 Looked decent going forward but needed to inject more pace into the attacks AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Tarek Hamed - 5 had a quiet night, slow in midfield but passed well Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Mohamed Salah - 6 Still recovering from injury but created a few chances and scored the penalty AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Abdallah Said - 5 Had a quiet night AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Trezeguet - 6 Worked hard but lacked a finishing touch AFP/Getty Images Russia vs Egypt: Player ratings Marwan Mohsen - 6 Played well but didn’t make full use of his chances Alexander Demianchuk/TASS

In their opening match against Saudi Arabia, the hosts ran a tournament-best 118km in the 90 minutes, with Tuesday night’s encounter coming in at a slightly-lower 115km.

In comparison, the next best distance came from Egypt in their opening Group A game with Uruguay that ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat, who clocked up 112km – six kilometres fewer than Russia’s impressive feat.

This rich run of form has certainly taken some by surprise given that Russia are the lowest-ranked team at the World Cup, having fallen to 70th in Fifa’s world rankings – though this is largely explained by their run of 18 friendlies that sandwich last year’s Confederations Cup due to their automatic qualification for the World Cup.

Aleksandr Golovin (right) has run further so far in the World Cup than any other player (Getty)

Russia also have three players inside the top 10 for distance covered, with midfielder Aleksandr Golovin leading the way over the course of the first round of group games with an individual 12.7km covered. To put that into comparison with one of the fittest players at the tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo managed 8.72km in the frantic 3-3 draw with Spain, where Portugal clocked up a total team distance of 102.5km.

One very obvious explanation is the home-crowd factor, given that there are strong links behind a partisan crowd and the external motivation that is triggered from the increase in support that the World Cup hosts are receiving over the course of their matches.