The opening week of the World Cup has developed a habit that nobody saw coming.

Player after player has marked his tournament debut in exactly the same way, and the run shows no sign of slowing down.

Wednesday brings five more nations into the tournament for the first time, which means five more squads full of players who have never appeared at a World Cup. Some of them could be about to walk straight into that pattern.

Four different players have now scored twice on their World Cup debut in the space of four days — Folarin Balogun, Yasin Ayari, Elijah Just and Erling Haaland. The question is who makes it five. Luis Díaz and Eberechi Eze are my picks.

Luis Díaz and Eberechi Eze lead the World Cup debut hopefuls

The most eye-catching of the four was Haaland, whose two goals on his World Cup debut against Iraq on Tuesday turned a quirk into a genuine talking point. The next to try will emerge from Wednesday’s openers — and Colombia hold the strongest hand.

They missed Qatar 2022 altogether, so most of their squad is set for a World Cup debut on Wednesday night against Uzbekistan, Díaz included.

The Bayern Munich forward was the standout of Colombia’s qualifying campaign, scoring a brace against Brazil along the way. Against a debutant Uzbekistan side, he looks as likely as anyone in the tournament to add his name to the run.

England offer the next best bet in Eze.

With Cole Palmer and Phil Foden both left out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad, the Arsenal man is the World Cup debutant with the most chance of grabbing a brace against Croatia, and he arrives fresh from a Premier League title.

The outside shouts to score twice on World Cup debut

Colombia’s supporting cast is full of debutants too, with strikers Jhon Córdoba and Luis Suárez — not that one — both in line to feature for the first time. Croatia’s Ante Budimir could also be making his bow.

As for Portugal, Gonçalo Ramos scored a hat-trick at the last one, and Rafael Leão and João Félix were both there too. Their debutants — Pedro Neto, Francisco Conceição and Francisco Trincão — are useful, but not names anyone would back to keep this going.

Five players in five days would be some going. After the week the World Cup has just had, though, it would be a brave call to rule it out.