The only real consequential surprise right now is Denmark not going through. Everything else has been more or less predictable in terms of teams going through.
Denmark not going through and Poland reaching the last 16 even knowing Mexico last couple of years haven't been great.
This has been a World Cup with the wildest swings in fortune, broken trends, and quite a few upsets. Australia, whose fans rated their team the weakest in ages, end up deservedly advancing with 6 points after opening with a flattering 4:1 loss to France. Denmark, rated a dark horse by many pundits, ended up last in the group with 1p. Tunisia failed to advance despite taking 4 points from its matches against Denmark and France, while the French had already ended a curse they had started in 2002 with a game in hand. Saudi Arabia shocked all pundits beating Argentina, lost a game it looked it would deservedly win against a pedestrian Polish side, and then was lucky not to concede more than 2 before nailing the coffin on Mexico's chances losing merely 2:1, helping Poland to finally advance from the group stage of a major tournament after a long time and ending Mexico's long streak of advancing. Argentina, in the meantime, bounced back just enough to advance but not enough for anyone to credit them much necessarily even if they have a deep run to the semifinal. Iran opened with its worst defeat ever losing 6:2 against one UEFA team; enjoyed its first ever World Cup win against a UEFA side in the next game, then lost its final game against an American side that had given it its then first ever World Cup win in 1998. But despite for the first time ever heading to M3 needing only a draw to advance, it kept its own curse of never advancing from the group stage of the World Cup. There have been more upsets I haven't touched (e.g. Japan/Germany, Morocco/Belgium), other swings in fortune (e.g. Costa Rica starting with a 7:0 thrashing by Spain to beat the team that had upset Germany, namely Japan), and other trends broken (e.g. Qatar becoming the first World Cup host to finish pointless), And we still have 4 more matches to complete the story from the group stage.
Netherlands if they are still in the tournament by the quarterfinals will be a very serious test for Argentina.
Regarding the prediction contest there are no major chances in the standings since with Argentina, Poland in Group C and France and Australia in Group D the teams ended up qualfying that were already in qualfying position heading into the last matchday. Again it was @monster- exodia who stood out. He nailed Argentina first Poland second and also France first Australia second. No other member did that. Next updated standings will come out after today's final matchday in Group E and Group F
Well I was one of the first here to hype Morocco (since 2018) and they've proven themselves topping the Group of Death, exceeding even my expectations of them.
More surprises today: -Morocco topping a group with Belgium and Croatia in it -Belgium (ranked #2 at FIFA) out of the WC in the 1st round
Tipping Australia was pure luck, I’m Australian with Portuguese parents and follow both closely and there was absolutely no reason to tip them to get out of the that group let alone 2 wins, I’m ecstatic that it’s happened but honestly speaking no Australian fan would’ve given us much of a hope
Ghana has been waiting for this moment since 2010. I hope they score 20 on them and go up to Suarez at the end of the game and wave a hand goodbye to him.
Well, Belgium indeed ended up being the only real pot 1 team that got eliminated in group stages. (Qatar should be a pot 4 team) Here's the update to my previous post: Teams already qualified (14) Pot 1 (6): England, Argentina, France, Spain, Brazil, Portugal Pot 2 (3): Netherlands, USA, Croatia Pot 3 (4): Senegal, Poland, Japan, Morocco Pot 4 (1): Australia Teams already eliminated (12) Pot 1 (2): Qatar, Belgium Pot 2 (3): Mexico, Denmark, Germany Pot 3 (2): Iran, Tunisia Pot 4 (4): Ecuador, Wales, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Canada Remaining teams not yet qualified nor eliminated (6) Pot 1 (0): Pot 2 (2): Switzerland, Uruguay Pot 3 (2): Serbia, South Korea Pot 4 (2): Cameroon, Ghana Overall, the trend seems to point out that Pot 1 teams always qualify and that pot 4 always get eliminated. Ghana has a big chance tomorrow to become the second pot 4 team to qualify. Cameroon I wouldn't count on it because even if they beat Brazil, they also depend on Switzerland losing but weirder things have happened
A draw also puts Cameroon through. They have superior goals scored (well, unless we get a 3:3 draw or higher in Switzerland-Serbia, but honestly if Cameroon somehow manage to win they would need to do so by outscoring Brasil, because I don't see them keeping a clean sheet).
And GERMANY OUT OF THE WORLD CUP And JAPAN TOPPING A GROUP WITH SPAIN AND GERMANY IN IT This world cup is WILD
Its about time we had a WC with lots of upsets. The same countries keep winning becomes boring and predictable. Lets hope there's more upsets (unless Holland play of course)