The Quarter Finalists and Group Finishing Positions

[Banana]

Thought it would be worthwhile seeing if any "repocharge" teams made if through from 3rd place. The answer won't surprise you....


France - Won Group I with maximum points
Morocco - Runners Up in Group C to Brazil by a GD of 3
Spain - Won Group H with 7 our of 9 points. Runners up where Cape Verde with 3 points
Belgium - Won Group G with 5 points, equal with Egypt
Norway - Runners Up in Group I to France. Behind by 3 points and 7 goals
England - Won Group L with 7 points and a 4 goal GD advantage

To determine
Argentina - Won Group J with maximum points; or
Egypt - Runners up in Group G with the same points as the group winners

Switzerland - Won Group B with 7 points
Colombia - Won Group K with 7 points



So having some 3rd team "qualifying" out of the groups was a complete waste of time



Which group winners didn't make the QFs?
Mexico - Group A
Brazil - Group C
USA - Group D
Germany - Group E (also Ivory Coast who finished runners up on same points)
Netherlands - Group F

 

[cheekybee74]

Though I doubt Capo Verde feel it was a waste of time. Produced surprising results and great performances.

 

[zuko]

Though I doubt Capo Verde feel it was a waste of time. Produced surprising results and great performances.

They finished top of their qualifying group and second in the WC group stage (unbeaten) - strong argument that they would have still done alright in a 32 team tournament.

 

[Jezybee]

Add to that, 5 out of 8 quarterfinalists are guaranteed to be from UEFA. Depending on today’s results, Switzerland could make it 6 of 8.

Of non-European countries, Morocco are in, one of Argentina or Egypt will join them, and Columbia if they beat Switzerland.

The predictions of the demise of the Old Continent at every World Cup once again seem premature.

 

[Hullbee]

Add to that, 5 out of 8 quarterfinalists are guaranteed to be from UEFA. Depending on today’s results, Switzerland could make it 6 of 8.

Of non-European countries, Morocco are in, one of Argentina or Egypt will join them, and Columbia if they beat Switzerland.

The predictions of the demise of the Old Continent at every World Cup once again seem premature.

Money talks and always will when the richest leagues are in Europe.

 

[SpiderBee]

Has there ever been a quarter final line up without a south American team in it?
Would love Egypt and Switzerland to both win today!

 

[Judio1999]

Interesting that 2 teams from the same group have made it through to the Quarters Though

 

[Judio1999]

Losers ??
Here are the results of the Last 8 (D# is qualify on pens)
France W W W W W
Morocco D W W D# W
Spain D W W W W
Belgium D D W W W
Norway W W L W W
England W D W W W

 

[bexleybee]

Its not a binary issue and I have mixed feelings about the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams. There's been some great side stories like Cape Verde. On the flipside having to play 72 group matches to reduce 48 teams to 32 is quite wonky. That's a lot of football. So that expansion of the best ranked 3rd place list certainly was a choice.

FIFA's main asset is the World Cup and I believe that 'just add more matches' was deemed the best route to increasing revenue. Revenue which only comes round every four years.

Was recently reminded that Euro 92 was an 8 team tournament. 2 groups of four, a semi and a final

 

[Judio1999]

Thought it would be worthwhile seeing if any "repocharge" teams made if through from 3rd place. The answer won't surprise you....

Only one of the 8 lucky 3rd place teams made it past the last 32
And that was Paraguay who didnt win the match. They just progressed on pens

The trouble is
If everyone complains about 3rd place teams
FIFA will just make it a 64 team Finals

 

[Oldboy TW8 0AW]

Only one of the 8 lucky 3rd place teams made it past the last 32
And that was Paraguay who didnt win the match. They just progressed on pens

The trouble is
If everyone complains about 3rd place teams
FIFA will just make it a 64 team Finals

Anything is possible with Infantino in charge at FIFA?
Hopefully, he is not re elected in 2027.

 

[hobbsy]

Anything is possible with Infantino in charge at FIFA?
Hopefully, he is not re elected in 2027.

I doubt there will be anyone standing against him. Plus Infantino will have already bribed courted enough FA's to secure his election

 

[Oldboy TW8 0AW]

I doubt there will be anyone standing against him. Plus Infantino will have already bribed courted enough FA's to secure his election

I am sure that is right.

 

[JPince]

If 48 is the new norm, lowest ranked 32 play 1 knock out round to get to 32.

Then the usual 8 groups of 4 or straight to knock out.

 

[Bigruss]

FIFA will just make it a 64 team Finals

Isn’t that already happening in 2034 (Saudi WC)?

 

[Bigruss]

Isn’t that already happening in 2034 (Saudi WC)?

Ignore me. 2034 will be the first 48 team WC hosted by 1 country.

 

[Gawain]

Though I doubt Capo Verde feel it was a waste of time. Produced surprising results and great performances.

I enjoyed CV's progress as much as anyone, but we shouldn't imagine that that was anything more than just one of those things which can happen over a few games in a Cup competition, before "reality bites" - a bit like eg Notts County getting to the Quarter Finals of last season's FA Cup.

Far more revealing were the performances eg of no-hopers like Qatar, Haiti, Curacao, Tunisia, NZ, Iraq, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Panama. In their 27 games, those nine managed a grand total of 3 points, scoring 17 goals and conceding 84, with their sole contribution to the tournament being to spare the blushes of Scotland even further.

Anyhow, I believe CV were the lowest ranked of the 10 African to qualify, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they didn't qualify in 2030 or 2034, even should the Finals be extended to 64 teams.

Which is why we are where we are at the "business end" of the tournament, with European teams once again heavily dominant, alongside one or two South American or African teams, with Asia and CONCACAF (15 entrants between them) nowhere to be seen.

 

[Mr Tree]

If 48 is the new norm, lowest ranked 32 play 1 knock out round to get to 32.

Then the usual 8 groups of 4 or straight to knock out.

It's done the current way to ensure everyone at least gets 3 games. That seems reasonable. Hence the nonsense about 16 groups of 3(!) not getting too far (would be only two games each).

I saw a suggestion of 16 groups of 3, with the "next round" being 2nd vs 3rd (i.e. A2 v B3), and then a knockout from there... quite liked it but didn't look too far into it for potential issues etc...

 

[Gawain]

I saw a suggestion of 16 groups of 3, with the "next round" being 2nd vs 3rd (i.e. A2 v B3), and then a knockout from there... quite liked it but didn't look too far into it for potential issues etc...

If you were to have 48 teams, that might be the best way of doing it? Though thinking about it, that could see a 3rd team which lost both their opening two games heavily, getting to play a 2nd team which scraped a fluky draw and was comfortably beaten in the other.

Anyhow, I'd still much prefer just going back to 32 teams, 8 groups of 4, top 2 go through to last 16 - far fewer nothing games between nothing teams.

Not that we'll ever see that again...

 

[StevieSteve]

If you were to have 48 teams, that might be the best way of doing it? Though thinking about it, that could see a 3rd team which lost both their opening two games heavily, getting to play a 2nd team which scraped a fluky draw and was comfortably beaten in the other.

Anyhow, I'd still much prefer just going back to 32 teams, 8 groups of 4, top 2 go through to last 16 - far fewer nothing games between nothing teams.

Not that we'll ever see that again...

Isn't it to be expected that the gap between Pot 2 and Pot 3/4 teams will close in the coming years so it'll be a more equal competition?

 

[Gawain]

Isn't it to be expected that the gap between Pot 2 and Pot 3/4 teams will close in the coming years so it'll be a more equal competition?

They've been saying that for years, decades even.

And every four years we see that when it gets to the business end of the tournament, it gets contested by Europe and whichever 2 or 3 South American teams are on their game at the time.

Or to put it another way, adding extra teams from outside Europe and S.America is only adding more dregs to the bottom of the barrel. Which was bad enough when expanding to 48, but would be terrible going to 64.

P.S. Also ignores the fact that the gap between Pot 1 and (most of) the rest is as wide as ever.

 

[AB]

I think the main problem with 48 teams is how long it’s made the competition. The head to head tie break was unnecessary and probably resulted in a few more dead rubber third group games than needed.

But after the final 32 the 4 worst third placers all had some merit and same for maybe half the 4th placers. Even the nul points likes of Panama who in past tournaments were gubbed showed some fight.

The biggest revelation has been how the standard of 16-24 seems to have got closer to the top. Egypt and Cape Verde weren’t just blocking their way through taking Argentina on.

Maybe by 2038 there’ll be enough competitive teams to allow for a 64 team tournament. As a world tournament there are still several highly populous countries who like football which are hopeless. It wouldn’t be bad to get them to lift themselves up.

 

[Jezybee]

Interestingly, to me anyway, except Switzerland and Norway, the remaining quarterfinalists have all been semifinalists in the past 4 World Cups.
Striking how few counties have got to that point and how well relatively small in population (but football obsessed) countries such as Croatia, Netherlands and Belgium have done.
.

 

[IGYBee]

Thought it would be worthwhile seeing if any "repocharge" teams made if through from 3rd place. The answer won't surprise you....


France - Won Group I with maximum points
Morocco - Runners Up in Group C to Brazil by a GD of 3
Spain - Won Group H with 7 our of 9 points. Runners up where Cape Verde with 3 points
Belgium - Won Group G with 5 points, equal with Egypt
Norway - Runners Up in Group I to France. Behind by 3 points and 7 goals
England - Won Group L with 7 points and a 4 goal GD advantage

To determine
Argentina - Won Group J with maximum points; or
Egypt - Runners up in Group G with the same points as the group winners

Switzerland - Won Group B with 7 points
Colombia - Won Group K with 7 points



So having some 3rd team "qualifying" out of the groups was a complete waste of time



Which group winners didn't make the QFs?
Mexico - Group A
Brazil - Group C
USA - Group D
Germany - Group E (also Ivory Coast who finished runners up on same points)
Netherlands - Group F

A waste of time ?

 

[Garybaldbee]

Interestingly, to me anyway, except Switzerland and Norway, the remaining quarterfinalists have all been semifinalists in the past 4 World Cups.
Striking how few counties have got to that point and how well relatively small in population (but football obsessed) countries such as Croatia, Netherlands and Belgium have done.
.View attachment 67043

Unless I'm misreading it, aren't some of those columns the wrong way round? It wasn't Croatia but France who were runners up last time whilst Croatia were finalists in 2018, not Belgium.

 

[Jezybee]

Unless I'm misreading it, aren't some of those columns the wrong way round? It wasn't Croatia but France who were runners up last time whilst Croatia were finalists in 2018, not Belgium.

Don’t think the order of teams in the graphic has any meaning re: semi-final opponents given the finalists in that time have been:
1998 France 3-0 Brazil
2002 Brazil 2-0 Germany
2006 Italy 1-1 (5-3 pens) France
2010 Spain 1-0 (a.e.t) Netherlands
2014 Germany 1-0 (a.e.t) Argentina
2018 France 4-2 Croatia
2022 Argentina 3-3 (4-2 pens) France

 

[Gawain]

The Independent has produced some interesting stats, apparently gleaned from FIFA, on the 8 x Quarter Finalists. I can't reproduce it here (paywalled), but note the following.

Argentina are ahead on xG, England second and Morocco way down at the bottom:
ARG - 11.91
ENG - 10.59
ESP - 10.56
BEL - 10.28
FRA - 9.79
SWI - 9.16
NOR - 9.07
MOR - 6.4

Total Attempts inside the area:
BEL - 70
ENG - 63
ESP - 55
FRA - 48
ARG - 46
SWI - 45
NOR - 42
MOR - 38

Spain are out on their own for dominating possession (no surprise there):

ESP - 59
ARG - 55
FRA - 54
MOR - 54
ENG - 53
SWI - 51
NOR - 50
BEL - 49

Meanwhile, Belgium have run further than any other side and four of their players are in the top 10 for the entire tournament, with Youri Tielemans top of the pile having cleared the 60km mark (overall) during their win over USA in the round of 16. [Maybe their low possession stat means they're having to chase the ball more than most?]
Harry Kane is England’s top runner, getting through more than 53km across his five appearances.
Jude Bellingham has made the third most sprints, behind Saibari (MOR) first, and Castagne (BEL) second.
Elliott Anderson is near the top of the charts when it comes to defensive contributions at this World Cup, incl ranking second for direct pressures on opponents with the ball - Morocco’s Neil El Aynoui has made the most direct presses on opponents with the ball, while Pedri has forced the most turnovers.

More here, if you can access it: World Cup 2026 statistics: What the numbers reveal about the quarter-finalists

And here: https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/statistics