The Stoppage Times

Now that the group stage has officially concluded and our first knockout game of the 2026 World cup has been played I thought I would make a bit of an effort to reflect on the group results, the bracket they have formed and who might top said bracket.

Group A: To say this group brought me any joy in terms of results would be a blatant lie, the Czechs who knocked Ireland out of the European play-off semi-final absolutely floundered their way to a single point and 4th place in the group, losing to Korea and Mexico and fumbling a lead to allow South Africa to steal a draw from 12yds. Korea were also quite a disappointment, they didn’t adapt much for Son’s aging and loss of speed, we got a glimpse of what they could do against Czechia but sputtering to a 1-0 loss to South Africa in the final game left them praying in 3rd on 3pts and -1gd which in the end saw them miss out on the eight available spots for 3rd place teams. The surprise bag was definitely the comeback from South Africa, two players sent off and a 2-0 loss to Mexico for the first game spelled a complete collapse for Bafana Bafana however they showed their mettle drawing with Czechia by way of a late penalty and then beating Korea 1-0 on the final day to slide up into 2nd in the group for their first successful group campaign in the tournament. Unfortunately for Group A I am writing this after they lost their 3rd team as our first Ro32 game saw a rather dire footballing display ending in a bland 1-0 result as Canada sent South Africa packing.

Group B: In a result that would shock absolutely nobody with an interest in the game Switzerland topped a rather mediocre group against Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada and Qatar. The surprise factor for this game has to be Bosnia coming 3rd behind Canada, I was absolutely certain that Canada wouldn’t be able to do enough to make the goal difference against Qatar to make up for a loss to the Swiss and get ahead of Bosnia if the two finished their game level. Qatar actually did do slightly better than I had expected managing 2pts and a draw, though they did finish with 9 men against Canada as they lost 6-0 in a game which had a dark cloud over it as one of the red cards for Qatar came from a challenge which saw Canada’s Ismaël Koné stretchered off with a broken ankle. The 6-0 win over Qatar, and a 1-1 draw with Bosnia set the Canadians up with a large swing of goal difference needed on the final day to fall to 3rd with Bosnia playing Qatar, a 3-1 win for the Balkan side was not enough to make the swing, even with the Canucks losing 2-1 to the Swiss.

Group C: As expected. That one sentence sums up this group for the most part, Brazil and Morocco played out an end to end draw ending 1-1 which was well worth staying up to watch. Scotland disappointed failing to put more than just a single goal past Haiti before falling to the same score line against Morocco, on the final day Brazil pumped three past the Scots as Morocco beat Haiti 4-2 to finish 2nd with the Seleção having +6gd to their +3. While the Haitians were put to the axe after just two games following their losses to Scotland and Brazil they went out on the final day all guns blazing, Wilson Isidor of Sunderland scored an absolute beauty of a goal as he rifled across goal into the top left corner from distance and I think the Haitians should be proud of their team and if we’re lucky this amazing run to make the tournament can spur on a time of change and peace for the country.

Group D: In my initial predictions I had been looking for a successful hate watch of the main of the three hosts with the US to come bottom of this group behind Paraguay as Turkiye would take the top spot on 7-9pts… How wrong that was. Turkiye were absolutely dross losing to Australia and Paraguay, the latter being made more embarrassing by the fact that Paraguay scored after a “controversial” moment saw Miguel Almirón sent off for covering his mouth with his shirt to speak to a Turkish player. While some people framed the former Newcastle player’s sending off as a joke saying that the game is going “soft” FIFA implemented this rule for a reason, as we try to cull the scourge of racism across the world, celebrities and athletes must be held more accountable as they have influence over the general public. This rule came after the controversial UCL fixture between Benfica and Real Madrid saw Gianluca Prestianni sent off after allegations of racism against Vinicius Jr. in a moment where he had covered his mouth with his shirt and was accused of calling the Brazilian winger a “monkey” which Kylian Mbappé told reporters he heard the Argentine say five times. The USA walked through the group and confirmed the top spot after beating both Paraguay and Australia in their first two games meaning neither could get ahead on the final day by beating the other despite both being on 3pts as FIFA now prioritise head-to-head results over goal difference which meant even with a loss to Turkiye the USA couldn’t possibly find behind the two sides they had beaten. After playing out the final game to a draw Australia took 2nd place in the group while Paraguay’s 4pts saw them come inside the best eight 3rd place sides and qualify for the knockouts which saw them rewarded with a tie against Germany.

Group E: Speaking of Germany, they somehow made this group look easy and incredibly difficult at the same time, trouncing Curacao 7-1 to open the group made the European giants look like they were back to their 2014 Brazil form but they lacked much fight in their other games as they scrambled over the line for an Undav winner against Cote d’Ivoire and despite a very early goal to take the lead they lost to Ecuador. In the end the group pretty much went as expected, Germany were guaranteed top after two wins on the trot and Ecuador and Cote d’Ivoire were able to qualify for the next round though Eloy Room’s generational performance against Ecuador denied us a very confusing and fun result where the other three sides would have gone to a head-to-head table as all of them lost to one and beat the other.

Group F: What A Group! Apologies to Tunisia but they were deservedly the group’s whipping boys, 5-1 to Sweden in their first game and they sacked the manager, his replacement then lost 4-0 to Japan and 3-1 to the Netherlands, just dreadful across the board. Japan and the Netherlands gave us a bit of a snoozefest in the first half but that second half was brilliant, the same can be said of Japan vs Sweden, good game, end to end action and a reasonable draw at the final whistle. The big surprise of the group was Sweden getting battered 5-1 by the Dutch, while it was a goof performance by De Oranjes statistically the game should have been closer, the Swedes had a decent share of the ball and a number of chances with the xG suggesting a more reasonable score line of 3-1 (2.61-1.01).

Group G: Such an odd group, Iran pulled the New Zealand move and went out without losing a game, a trio of draws saw them miss out on the top eight 3rd place spots finishing 9th on goal difference. Unfortunately for New Zealand they couldn’t repeat that move as they lost to Egypt before being trounced be a resurgent Belgium side as Jeremy Doku returned after the birth of his first child (congratulations to him and his partner) with the side battering the Kiwi’s to the tune of 5-1 with Doku unable to get his name on the scoresheet funnily enough. Egypt matched Belgium on results with a win against NZ, draw against Iran and a draw between the two sides but with only a 3-1 margin against New Zealand they were leapfrogged by Belgium on goal difference on the final matchday of the group which robbed us of an AFCON classic and a “Liverpool Derby” with Belgium drawing Senegal in the Ro32 after jumping Egypt who have a relatively poor record against the dethroned champions of Africa in recent years with Senegal winning three games of the five they have played since 2014 with Egypt only winning one, the “draw” was actually an AFCON final which Senegal won on penalties.

Group H: Once again, what a group! Spain stumbling to a draw against Cabo Verde as Yamal and their other big hitters were mainly on the bench due to recent injuries causing a lack of sharpness which translated to the starting eleven. The Spaniards would go on to an easy dismantling of Saudi Arabia where they looked like a completely different side under Yamal’s influence, that kid is horrifyingly good at football, and a rather brutal 1-0 win over Uruguay in which Marcelo Bielsa crashed out tremendously taking national legend Fernando Muslera off at half time after his error gave the European champions the lead. Uruguay were frustrated by draws against Saudi Arabia (1-1) and Cabo Verde (2-2) which both games saw dreadful displays of finishing by La Celeste. The only silver lining for Uruguay is that their goal difference was better than the Saudi Arabians who’s loss to Spain put them bottom on goal difference.

Group I: Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Erling Braut Haaland are just monsters. Norway chose to rest against France and settle for 2nd in the group after both had beaten Iraq and a resilient Sénégal who put enough past Iraq on the final day to nick the 8th spot of the best 3rd place sides and qualify for the Ro32. In another group I think the dethroned AFCON winners would have been likely to qualify outright as one of the top two sides and I think they can show that against Belgium in a few days from now. Congratulations to Mbappé for matching Miroslav Klose’s old record for all-time World Cup top scorer, with his record of scoring eight times in the knockout stage of his last two World Cup appearances including a final hattrick in 2022 as France lost on penalties to Argentina after a 3-3 draw at the 120th minute whistle it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest he could push on to potentially match or better Just Fontaine’s record for goals scored in a single tournament as he sits on 4 goals and the record set by Fontaine is 13.

Group J: Lionel Andrés Messi, the greatest footballer of all time. Need I say more, six goals in two starts and one substitute appearance, scoring Argentina’s first five goals in a 3-0 win over Algeria and 2-0 win over Austria. Argentina look like they are just at the tournament for some fun and with Messi now holding the record ahead of Mbappé and Klose he too could chase down Just Fontaine’s record for goals in a single tournament, though Fontaine’s record was in a much different era of the game across six games at the 1958 tournament in Sweden, like Messi six of his goals came in the group with a hattrick in the first, two in the 2nd and a single goal in the 3rd, the Frenchman went on to the Quarter Finals as there was only sixteen spots in the tournament in 1958 where he put two past Northern Ireland, one past Brazil who beat them 5-2 with a Pelé hattrick, and four past West Germany in the game for 3rd. Can Messi potentially do the same as he leads Argentina’s charge to be repeat champions of the world? As for the rest of this group Algeria and Austria also played out wins over Jordan and a late equaliser from Kalajdžić in the final group game between the two saw Austria take 2nd on goal difference and earn game against Spain in the 1st knockout round.

Group K: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, you may be the most prolific striker in the history of the sport numerically but when you take penalties out of the question Messi has you beaten by about ten goals and you have proven me right. You have passed your prime and while you still have an immense physical presence you hinder the pressing abilities of your team and your greed ruins good opportunities for goals as you fire threatless efforts instead of passing. Portugal were deservedly beaten to the top of Group K by Colombia after a scoreless draw in their matchup on the final day of the group with Ronaldo failing to score against the group leaders and 3rd place D.R. Congo, he did score twice as Portugal put five past Uzbekistan, all in all this was business as usual, or at least within my expectations despite my hopes that Uzbekistan would stun the Portuguese and sneak out in 3rd over D.R. Congo.

Group L: It’s not coming home. Tuchel’s England have spent most of the group with a real lack of energy and threat, especially the first half against Croatia and until around the 75th minute against Ghana, at first I was apprehensive about Madueke being in the squad but based on the three games I think he was better than Saka, though Saka’s corner did set up Bellingham against Panama and Rashford for the 4th against Croatia. Despite the 4-2 result and the game being 2-2 at half time I felt like England were lack lustre going forward in the first half against Croatia, something about Tuchel’s midfield shape seemed to leave them highly error prone and susceptible to counters, when this was addressed at the half there was a notable upturn for the English though it did seem more like Croatia made a backstep with their tactical adjustments. Ghana defended very well throughout the group stage and could make a case for themselves having been a bit hard done by in failing to finish 2nd after their loss to Croatia where both sides left their fans with much to be desired in the final third. Croatia’s two wins and Ghana’s win and a draw meant that both sides were able to follow England into the knockouts.

The Bracket:¹

We already know the result of South Africa – Canada as I previously mentioned, a 1-0 win for the Canadians who will go on to face the winner of tonight’s tie between Morocco and the Netherlands. As we look toward the favourites on the bracket Argentina have a lovely run on paper, Cabo Verde have proven a challenge for their opponents to break down with only two goals conceded against Uruguay, two goals which came more from their own errors than from Uruguayan talent however Crumlin native Pico Lopes, Vozinha and the rest of the Cabo Verde defence will face Messi in a vein of form that should realistically be the end of the fairy tale for the island nation off the coast of Sénégal. France do have a challenging run, Sweden will probably be a similar result to their games against Norway and Sénégal, then they will likely face Germany before coming to blows with the Moroccans or the Dutch in the semi finals should they make it so far, the semis will bring both France and Argentina their first games where I feel like they will actually be at risk as France would likely face Spain while Argentina would likely face Brazil or England (though I won’t count out Japan tonight!) at that stage.
I think the most likely final based on the bracket will be a repeat of the 2022 final, France against Argentina which I think could be another run all the way to penalties in which case I think Emi Martinez would be the hero once again.

Thanks for reading,
Lily.