Africa’s push for more slots in the FIFA World Cup finals was justified as nine out of 10 teams from the continent emerged from the group stage of the ongoing edition, hosted by Canada, Mexoco and the United States. The competition enters its knockout phase today (Sunday) with South Africa going up against Canada in the first match of the Round 32.
Of the six continents participating in the world’s biggest single-sport competition, Africa’s contingent finished the first round with a 90% performance, as only one (Tunisia) of its 10 representatives failed to advance to the Round of 32.
Africa is immediately followed by South America (83.33%) and Europe (81.25%). From six teams, the former is down to five as Uruguay finished bottom of the table among the 12 third-placed sides. The top eight teams in that mini-league have a second lifeline as they progressed to the Round of 32.
For Europe, which parades the largest delegation to the tournament, the Czech Republic, Scotland and Türkiye will watch the competition from a distance as 13 other teams from the zone continue to chase glory.
But for the co-hosts — Canada, Mexico and the United States — the Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) would have been sharing a miserable record with Oceania. Curaçao, Haiti and Panama all did not cover CONCACAF in glory, while Oceania’s only palm fruit (New Zealand) got lost in the heat of the first round.
Asia was also poor, carrying only two of nine nations to the first knockout phase. Iran lost in the last minutes of the group stage, no thanks to Austria’s goal by Sasa Kalajdzic in the dying moments, which gave them passage to the next round and shattered the Asians’ dream. One after the other, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar all hit the bottom of their respective groups, while Korea Republic finished third in Group A. They now leave their continent’s battle to Australia and Japan.
No African side topped any of the 13 groups, but Morocco, South Africa, Cape Verde Islands, Côte d’Ivoire and Egypt were runners-up, while Senegal, Algeria, DR Congo and Ghana scraped through among the best third-placed teams.
Round of 32 fixtures. Time: West Africa
28 June: South Africa v Canada (8pm)
29 June: Brazil v Jordan (6pm), Germany v Paraguay (9:30 pm)
30 June: Netherlands v Morocco (2 am), Côte d’Ivoire v Norway (6 pm), France v Sweden (10 pm)
1 July: Mexico v Ecuador (2 am), England v DR Congo (5 pm), Belgium v Senegal (9 pm)
2 July: United States v Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 am), Spain v Austria (10 pm)
3 July: Portugal v Croatia (Midnight), Switzerland v Algeria (4 am), Australia v Egypt (7 pm), Argentina v Cape Verde (11 pm)
4 July: Colombia v Ghana (2:30 am)
