Seventy-two matches into the biggest World Cup in history and we have witnessed a fair mix of exciting, decent and blah moments.
Same thing goes with the players, coaches and teams. Some familiar heavyweights have asserted their authority, tiny nations have made the knockouts on their debuts, and some others – big and small – have just thoroughly failed to deliver.
Here are the winners and losers of the group stages.
Winners
Cape Verde
This is Cape Verde’s first appearance at the World Cup. The nation of only half a million people seized their opportunity with both hands, but also in a way that tells the most phenomenal story. They hired players via LinkedIn and their starting goalkeeper is 40 years old, but they started by pulling off an impressive, disciplined performance to earn a daw against European champions Spain, before also holding Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to draws. Now you might say they reached the knockouts without winning a single game, but they also reached the knockouts without losing a single game.
DR Congo
DR Congo were the first Sub-Saharan African nation to qualify for a World Cup when they appeared in 1974, known then as Zaire. That was a brutal tournament for them as they lost all three group games: 9-0 against Yugoslavia, 2-0 against Brazil, and 3-0 against Scotland. But on their return after a 52-year absence, they have drawn against Portugal, lost against Colombia but won against Uzbekistan to reach the knockouts.
France
No big side completed the group stage with greater authority than France. Three wins from three, a flood of goals, a sizzling Kylian Mbappe, a Ballon d’Or winner with a hat-trick, and scarcely a moment of discomfort have made Didier Deschamps’ side early favourites. France entered the competition among the favourites and they leave the group stage still looking every bit like one.
Lionel Messi
It was not quite clear what version of the 39-year-old would turn up for this tournament, especially considering Messi had already achieved his big dream of winning a World Cup and he came into this tournament on the back of lingering injury concerns. But if you thought he came just to mark the attendance, boy were you wrong. With six goals scored in three games – 75 per cent of Argentina’s goals scored – Messi is certainly one of the winners of the group stages.
USA, Canada and Mexico
Is there any pressure on teams playing the World Cup on home soil? Maybe, maybe not. But if you were to judge from the performances of the three co-hosts here, it is advantage host all the way down. US, Canada and Mexico have ridden on the wave of home support and all qualified for the knockouts. Canada destroyed their underdog tag, USA have Americans actually dreaming of a World Cup win, and Mexico avoided the kind of group-stage collapse that has haunted previous generations.
Ismael Saibari
The Morocco midfielder enters the knockouts with an enhanced reputation. He scored in all three of his side’s group games with Morocco looking just as good and probably even better than their last tournament in 2022. The North African side look like they possess the oomph to make a deep run at the tournament and Saibari will be a big part of that with the attacking goods he provides.
Losers
Portugal
Despite qualifying for the knockouts, Portugal look far from the team we expected them to be given the talent they possess in the middle of the park. Although on the other hand, perhaps they look every bit the team we expected them to be with a 41-year-old leading the line. They were second to Colombia in their group, have failed to convince either tactically or creatively, and look like their exit will come sooner rather than later.
Uruguay
The two-time world champions have not been at their best for some time now but they plumbed the depths in this tournament. They failed to win a single game and the defeat to Spain confirmed their group stage exit. It had to take spectacularly poor performance for any half-decent footballing nation to fail to make it to the knockouts in this expanded tournament and Uruguay found a way.
Tunisia
Only one out of the 10 African teams who played at this World Cup failed to qualify for the knockouts and that team was Tunisia, this after making history as the first nation to ever sack their manager after just one game at a World Cup. Herve Renard was appointed after Sabri Lamouchi was sacked for the 5-1 defeat to Sweden, but then he too lost 4-0 to Japan and then 3-1 to the Netherlands. It’s safe to say this tournament is not one Tunisia would want to remember.
Marcelo Bielsa
Marcelo Bielsa resigned after exiting a tournament where he failed to win a single game and was at odds with his players. A group of senior players confronted him before the loss to Spain and questioned his methods, but he brushed them off and Uruguay went on to have a tetchy but ultimately fruitless battle with Spain. After his side’s exit, Bielsa admitted he had left nothing to Uruguayan football. The 70-year-old’s last decent managerial spell was possibly at Leeds from 2018 before he got sacked in 2022. It would seem the game has passed him by.
