The knockout rounds of the 2026 World Cup start on Sunday (12.30am IST, Monday) with co-hosts Canada taking on South Africa, surprise survivors from the group stage, at the Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood.
Nobody thought South Africa would be in the Round of 32 after their opening day performance against Mexico, but their 1-0 win against South Korea changed the entire dynamics of Group A.
The Koreans, with three points and a goal difference of -1, are now looking at other
results to see if they can sneak in as one of the eight best-third teams. The waiting game has begun.
Each of the 48 teams at this World Cup were assigned to a group of four. The teams finishing first and second in those groups automatically move into the knockouts, so with 12 groups, that fills up 24 spots in a 32-team bracket.
The teams that finish last in each of the 12 groups will be eliminated.
That leaves 12 third-placed finishers for the eight remaining spots.
A total of four standings points will almost certainly be enough to advance; three would get it done for many teams too. Ties within the third-placed teams, with no head-to-head tiebreaker possible because they’re all in different groups, will be settled by goal difference, goals scored, Fifa’s “fair play” ranking and world ranking, if necessary.
Great escape
Before the tournament got going, there were doubts over whether the expanded 48-team tournament would see some “uninteresting matches”. But that did not happen.
Take, for example, Germany’s 2-1 loss to Ecuador on Thursday. It took the Latin American country to the knockouts with four points. This was probably this World Cup’s biggest upset.
The four-time champions, 10th in the Fifa rankings, were beaten by a team ranked 23rd.
Germany looked like a pale shadow of themselves. The defenders were horribly out of place, Manuel Neuer was struggling and Ecuador? They were electrifying.
“On Monday, it’s important that we start well,” was Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann’s stoic reply after the match.
Germany are being seen as one of the favourites to win the World Cup. And they will seek solace from an interesting bit of statistics. No team has lifted the Cup after winning all their three group-stage matches since Brazil did it in 2002.
Australia earned their berth from Group D after the goalless tie against Paraguay, which fans dubbed as “the worst match in the history of the World Cup.” Paraguay are on the brink of qualifying.
Interesting match-ups
There are some intriguing clashes. Brazil, who topped Group C, face Group F runners-up Japan in Houston on Monday; co-hosts US, who topped their group despite losing to Turkey 3-2, will be up against Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1; the Netherlands have run into tough opponents, Morocco.
Brazil, under Carlo Ancelotti, looked good against Haiti and Scotland, with Vinicius Junior given complete freedom on the left. Matheus Cunha is firing too. But will Japan be easy meat? Not really. Last year, Japan recorded their first-ever win against Brazil in a friendly. They had played 13 times before that.
The Netherlands versus Morocco game will see players from the North African side who were either born or developed in the Dutch system. The likes of Noussair Mazraoui (Manchester United), Sofyan Amrabat (Real Betis), Anass Salah-Eddine (PSV Eindhoven), and Ismael Saibari (PSV Eindhoven) were products of the famed Dutch system before they chose to play for Morocco.