04 July 2018•Update: 06 July 2018
By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun
ANKARA
The race for the Golden Boot Award has heated up after 54 matches in the World Cup 2018.
Tuesday evening's Round of 16 match saw a penalty shootout that lifted England over Colombia for a ticket to quarter finals, as Harry Kane increased his number of goals in the tournament to 6 after converting a penalty kick in the 57th minute.
Kane is currently leading the tournament, while their Group G opponents Belgium's Romelu Lukaku is at second place with 4 goals so far.
England's captain scored a brace against Tunisia in Three Lions's first match in the tournament, including a last minute header to give his team the win.
Kane continued his scoring performance against first-timers Panama; he notched a hat-trick during England's 6-1 win.
Lukaku, like Kane, scored against Tunisia and Panama. He scored a total of 4 goals against them, a brace for each match.
The two strikers were not able to score against each other in their Group G clash, which resulted in Belgium's 1-0 win.
Kane and Lukaku's race to golden boot saw an effort that has not been seen since 1982, when Diego Maradona scored at least 2 goals in back-to-back matches in the World Cup in Mexico.
There are also 4 players with 3 goals, who are still in the tournament: Russia's Artem Dzyuba and Denis Cheryshev, France's 19-year-old sensation Kylian Mbappe and Uruguay's Edinson Cavani.
In World Cup 2014, which was held in Brazil, Colombia's James Rodriguez was the winner of the Golden Boot award with 6 goals.
In World Cup 2010 that was held in South Africa, four players were tied with 5 goals, but it was Germany's Thomas Muller who took home the award because of making more assists.
According to the Golden Boot Award regulations, if players are tied with the same number of goals, the first tie-breaker is the number of assists they made.
If the assists are also same, then the award is given to the player who scored his goals in less minutes.
