We are at the end of the World Cup group stage with Groups A, B, C and D finished and Groups E and F dusted on the agenda for Thursday. So far, France, Australia, Portugal, England, Senegal, USA, Netherlands, Argentina, Poland and Brazil have booked their passage into the round of 16. Five more will join them in the final round of each group. Qatar also joined South Africa as the only World Cup hosts to fail to advance out of the group stage. Let’s take a look at who can join them in the last 16 and what their path is to get there.
Given the tiebreaker, the start is simple with the team with the most points leading. If two teams are equal on points, the overall goal difference is added. If they still cannot be divided, the team that scores the most goals will be the team that advances. The rules will then only be re-applied in the head-to-head match between the two tied teams. So total points in those matches are then followed by head-to-head goal difference and goals scored. If they make it all the way through and it can’t be divided, it finally goes to fair play.
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The Fair Play system will see the team progress with the fewest number of penalties in matches. So a team loses a point for each yellow card, three points for each red card due to a second yellow card, four points for a consecutive red card, and if a yellow card is followed by a consecutive red card, it counts as five points.
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Below are the groups with all the groups that played two matches
Group A
- Holland: Group winners.
- Senegal: The second place.
- Ecuador: exclusion.
- Qatar: exclusion.
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Group B
- England: Group winners.
- United State: The second place.
- Iran: exclusion.
- Wells: exclusion.
Group C
- Argentina: Group winners.
- Poland: second place.
- Mexico: excluded.
- Saudi Arabia: Excluded.
group d
- France: group winners.
- Australia: second place.
- Tunisia: exclusion.
- Denmark: excluded.
Group E
- Spain: Until the round of 16 with a win or a draw against Japan. He can win the group by defeating Japan. He can also advance with the loss of Japan and the draw between Costa Rica and Germany.
- Japan: qualified for the round of 16 by defeating Spain. It could also qualify for the last 16 with a draw with Spain and a draw between Costa Rica and Germany. They could win the group by beating Spain and have a better goal difference than Costa Rica if they beat Germany.
- Costa Rica: can advance by beating Germany and losing one of Spain/Japan or a tie between them. Japan’s draw and loss can also progress. It could win the group with a win, a loss for Spain, and make up the six-goal difference between Japan.
- Germany: Can advance to the Round of 16 by winning and losing to Spain or Japan. He can also advance by winning more than one goal and drawing Japan.
Group F
- Croatia: He can advance to the round of 16 by beating Belgium. It can also advance with a draw against Belgium and Morocco’s loss against Canada. He could win the group by improving Morocco’s result.
- Morocco: He can advance to the Round of 16 with a win or a draw against Canada. It can also qualify for the round of 16 with a loss and a loss against Belgium or a loss and a win for Belgium and a better goal difference than Croatia. He could win the group by improving Croatia’s result and creating one goal difference.
- Belgium: It can advance to the round of 16 by defeating Croatia. It could also qualify with a draw and Morocco’s loss by more than three goals.
- Canada: Eliminated from the competition for the round of 16.
Group G
- Brazil: Until the round of 16, the group can be won by winning or drawing against Cameroon or losing to Switzerland.
- Switzerland: He can reach the round of 16 by winning or drawing with Serbia. It could win the group with a win, a loss for Brazil, and make up the goal difference by three.
- Cameroon: He can go into the round of 16 by beating Brazil and losing Switzerland. It can also reach the round of sixteen by defeating Brazil by more than one goal and a draw between Switzerland and Serbia.
- Serbia: He can go into the round of 16 by beating Switzerland and losing to Cameroon.
group h
- Portugal: Even the round of 16 can win the group by winning or drawing against South Korea or losing Ghana.
- Ghana: He can reach the round of 16 by winning or drawing against Uruguay. With a draw, they would need a better goal difference than South Korea if they beat Portugal.
- South Korea: They can reach the round of 16 by beating Portugal and losing to Ghana or drawing against Uruguay.
- Uruguay: He can reach the round of 16 by beating Ghana and losing to South Korea or drawing against Portugal. If South Korea wins with Uruguay, it will come to a tiebreaker.
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