The match for third place has a habit of producing plenty of goals. A total of 59 have been scored in the 15 previous fixtures, an average of 3.93 goals per game.

Four years ago the game also saw the FIFA World Cup™'s fastest-ever goal with Hakan Sukur's strike for Turkey against Korea Republic officially timed at 11 seconds.

The most goal-laden third place match came in 1958 in Gothenburg when France beat West Germany 6-3 with Just Fontaine, that year's top scorer with 13, scoring four times.

A 4-2 scoreline has occurred twice – in 1986 when France beat Belgium, and in 1938 when Brazil beat Sweden. Five goals have happened on three occasions (3-2 each time) – in the 2002 edition when Turkey beat Korea Republic, in 1982 when Poland saw off the challenge of France and in the first-ever match for third place when, in 1934, Germany beat Austria by the same score.

In the Brazil-Sweden game of 1938, Leonidas scored twice for Brazil to take his tally for the tournament to eight which was enough for him to take the top scorer award. Previously he was tied on six with Hungary's Gyula Zsengeller.

In 1998 Croatia's Davor Suker moved to six, ahead of Argentina's Gabriel Batistuta and Christian Vieri of Italy, while in 1990 Italy's Salvatore Schillaci moved to six as well, ahead of Czechoslovakia's Tomas Skuhravy with his late penalty to beat England. Roberto Baggio was Italy's normal penalty-taker but he moved aside to allow Schillaci to win the adidas Golden Shoe.

In Saturday night's game against Portugal in Stuttgart, Germany's Miroslav Klose will be looking to cement his claims for the Golden Shoe award. He currently leads the way with five goals with Thierry Henry the best-placed of those taking part in tomorrow's Final to overtake him. Even so the Frenchman, who has three goals so far, would need to score a hat-trick.

See the adidas Golden Shoe standings

Golden Shoe winners scoring in the match for third place, with their final goal total in brackets, are:
1998: Davor Suker (Croatia 2-1 Netherlands, 6)
1990: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy 2-1 England, 6)
1974: Gregorz Lato (Poland 1-0 Brazil, 7)
1966: Eusebio (Portugal 2-1 Soviet Union, 9)
1958: Just Fontaine (France 6-3 West Germany, 13)
1938: Leonidas (Brazil 4-2 Sweden, 8)
1934: Edmund Conen (Germany 3-2 Austria, 4) *
* In this year three players shared the Golden Shoe award with Oldrich Nejedly of Czechoslovakia and Angelo Schiavio of Italy also scoring four.